Report: Pumpkin tax repealed
Looks like the Iowa Department of Revenue listened to the massive backlash yesterday over its pumpkin tax. Commenter LuxEternam sends word that the state has backed off. Via the Des Moines Register:
Here’s a Halloween riddle: What happened when Iowa Department of Revenue officials tried to tax pumpkins?
They got squashed.
Administrators announced Wednesday that they were backing off a policy of charging sales tax on pumpkins intended for use as jack-o’-lanterns.
The decision came after The Des Moines Register reported the state’s claim that the big orange gourds did not qualify for the food exemption because they generally are used for decoration.
The department said it announced the policy last year, but it acknowledged that many people didn’t notice until Wednesday, when the story whipsawed around the Internet and drew scads of derisive comments.
The governor has called on the department to offer refunds to consumers and retailers.
To borrow Laura Ingraham’s phrase: Power to the people!
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what will they come up with next?
Alger Hiss,call your office.
This is proof-positive that these legislators have to much time on their hands…a pumpkin tax. Idiota!
LuxEternam – I don’t want to feed your ego and power-trip, but good job on taking this to Rush.
I heard on the radio this morning that Gov. Culver called the tax ridiculous. So, I don’t understand how it got passed? LuxEternam, resident pumpkin tax expert, any ideas?
I am for a tin foil tax. Then, the liberals will get an idea what it feels like when a tax targets them only!
#5 – good one soapie!
Now that Halloween is over….
Thanks feeb. I get one right now and again.
Amen!!!
This wasn’t a tax specific to pumpkins. Food is exempt from sales tax (at least in most states) and the dept of revenue was taking the position that since most people don’t eat pumpkins it’s not “food” and therefore subject to sales tax.
If you roast the seeds (as I do) or if you make pumpkin cookies and/or pumpkin pie (as my wife does) you could fill out a form and get a refund of the tax charged at the grocery store.
Just wait.
Christmas trees will be next.
Oh, sure, just what we need – MORE tax forms. Like it is worth anyone’s time for a few pennies (which is really the plan).
WOW!!
I feel……I dunno…….like famous or somethin’ now. On Rush yesterday, mentioned by MM today??? I wonder if I will get my big giant conservative head through the door!!!!!! Just Kidding!!!
I’m glad I can do my tiny little part to check the liberal behemoth that is the Iowa State government!!!!!
and walterc, the whole point of this is that it would cost you MORE to APPLY for the refund than you would get back from the State.
Unless you fill out a form saying you called it a “Holiday Tree”.
I must be ready for my 15 minutes of fame as I just beat Lux to the point. LOL
*pats self on back
By the way, Gov. Culver is throwing the blame on the Tom Vilsack (Crapsack around my house) administration for this one. Later in the article that MM posted, Gov. Culver mentions that this little gem was actually enacted in Dec of 2006, just before he took over as Governor. Culver, Vilsack……makes no difference. They are just interchangable liberal parts of the giant Democrat Tax Machine!!!
Goes to show you just can’t mess around with the Great Pumpkin …
How in the world does some of this ____ get passed in the first place? Don’t these people READ these things before they sign off on them? Apparently not.
Think these reps at all levels are ever going to wake up to the fact that Orwell had it backwards … We are watching Big Brother … not the other way around …
I would imagine that more pumpkins are made into pumpkin pie in IOWA than in many other states. Isn’t it good old farm country there?
Smashing good job. Now let’s get back to business.
Come now, you know liberals will keep burn the midnight oil coming up with tax schemes to part us from our money for them to throw at their constiuency.
This one was just too funny to the blogosphere and talk radio to ignore. Once exposed, they had to retreat.
It was an assinine tax for the Dems to come with in the first place, but then what is the party symbol after all?
Probably figured the revenue from a Pumpkin tax just wasn’t worth the humiliation of being mocked:)
This whole argument was dependent on whose pumpkin gourd was being gored. Tee Hee.
And by the way Christmas trees are tasty. That’s if you’re a goat.
Ahhhh…..gayle,
If you’re chowing down on a Christmas Tree com Dec 25, please don’t invite me for dinner. My doctor says I need some ruffage, but there’s such a thing as taking things too far. I’ll stick with turkey.
It’s time to have another Boston Tea party. I say “No taxation from moonbat representation!!!!” Tax pumpkins? Tell the headless horseman.
Will they try and tax Christmas trees?
And, how many people are going to take the time and make the effort to file the claim to get reimbursed for the tax they paid on a pumpkin(s)? Hmmm? I’m guessing very few.
So, I guess Iowa will still get the tax revenue it generated.
Taxing pumpkins. How stupid can elected officials be? No. You don’t have to answer that. As was noted earlier in the comments, they have too much time on their hands.
Every time I hear the Federal, State, Town or Village Goverments placing a dumb tax on something… It reminds me of the Popeye movie when that idiot goes around on the bicycle taxing everything. The Taxing Idiot says: That will be a chewing gum tax of five cents, ect, ect, ect…(Sarcasm On) To pay for the S-CHIP. OOPS! OHHHH Nooooo! I might have given the idots an Idea. Smokers who quit, chew gum don’t they. Besides I like a Bazooka Joe bubble gum every now and then myself. (Sarcasm Off)
It’s a little late for this year.
Watch this come back next year like a bad burrito.
People not taking time to fill out the form was the point from the Deptartment of Revenue standpoint. Being a former Dept of Revenue Agent, I understand the thinking. It wasn’t the legislators that came up with this “loophole” in the food is except/decorations are taxable scheme.
The legistors came up with the idea of exempting food from sales tax to keep lower income people from paying a high percentage of their meager incomes on taxes just to feed their families. (This exemption is fairly new here in Wyoming. And there are a few states that still tax food, pumpkins included.)
It was a bureaucrat at the Dept of Revenue that decided that pumpkins weren’t food and should be taxed.
It’s nice to see the governor telling them otherwise. Even though it took a public/blog firestorm to convince him.
And christmas trees are already subject to sales tax, assuming that you live in a state that has a sales tax (Montana is the only one I can think of that dosn’t have a sales tax.)
A 6¢ tax reduction today, billions of $ tomorrow.
All hail the victory of the punkinistas!
As for the joker who thought it was no big deal to sign a tax form affirming you were going to consume the pumpkin you were buying to get a tax exemption, WHAT THE &#$% BUSINESS IS IT OF THE GOVERNMENT WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO WITH YOUR PUMPKIN!? BACK OFF, ARROGANT BUREAUCRATS. YOU WORK FOR US. WE DON’T HAVE TO REPORT AND JUSTIFY EVERY &*@$ DETAIL OF OUR LIVES TO YOU.
There, I feel better now. Isn’t it funny that people who would complain the Patriot Act is trashing our rights have no problem with the government demanding we account to it for our vegetable use. Sheesh!
Iowa is a liberal state that tends to be tax and form happy. It’s one of the few states that demanded that military members serving outside Iowa pay state income tax. That’s why Iowa boys like me turned Texan as soon as we were assigned to a base there. Lots of Air Force guys become Texan or Floridian citizens because they have no state tax.
Iowa used to sell all liquor in state liquor stores which were a model of government incompetence. Customers would read a board with all the liquor products on it, write down their order, and get in line to give it to the clerk. The clerk would check it for correctness, sign off on it, and give it back to you. Then you got in another line to give it to a clerk who picked your order. The stock was all behind the long desk, off limits to customers. Then you took your order to the cashier who rang it up.
Does this mean all thos horrible nut and fruit breads at Christmas won’t be taxed since nobody ever eats them?