Sin Taxes ad Absurdum: Why Illinois Taxes Hershey Bars But Not Kit Kats
I'll be on John Stossel's special Tax Day show that airs this Thursday at 9 P.M. Eastern Time on Fox Business.
I'll be talking about sin taxes past, present, and future. Above is a short snippet about some of the dumber sin taxes in place: a tax on popsicles, for instance, and on Hershey bars but not Kit Kats. The latter have flour, you see, and so are not "candy," according the wise men of the Illinois state legislature.
More Stossel videos and info on the show here.
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Flour? So they're a pastry officially?
Take away their tax power.
It says cookie on the wrapper.
This is weak sauce compared to the lunacies of VAT food taxes in Great Britain. Look up the "Jaffa Cakes" tax case, if you want to see the bureaucratic mind at its finest.
This is the logical outcome of saying "We will tax snacks, because they are wicked, but not food, because Teh Poor."
Trying to draw a line between the two can be mighty hard.
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I strongly protest! A completely incorrect characterization.
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More like desperate, emaciated crack whore.
It is too late for me....but learn from my residency in Illinois....go you to other states and...remember.
In the checkout line today I saw a Snickers 2-pack.
What would the tax rate be on a 2-pack that contained 1 Kit Kat and one Hershey bar? Non-bureaucratic minds want to know.
*insert polynomial here*
fucking squirrels
Almost all candy has a corn derivative. That is food...
The man, the manstache, the Legend - Stossel on sin taxes, the most deplored of all taxes? Time to find a black market TV, methinks...