UNCATEGORIZED

Oklahoma to Exempt Groceries from State Sales Tax

Published

7 months ago

April 11, 2024

Like a number of foodstuffs, dairy products can be full fat, reduced fat, or 0% fat. Sales taxes on groceries operate in a sort of similar way. A few states go the full-fat route, applying the full state and local sales tax rate to groceries. Some states provide a partial sales tax exemption — the sensible 1% or 2% milkfat choice. And in numerous states, groceries are fat free (aka, fully exempt from sales tax).

Oklahoma currently has the full-fat variety: Groceries are subject to both state and local sales and use taxes. Come August 2024, the Sooner state will cut back by providing a partial sales tax exemption for food for home consumption. And that’s about as far as I can take this analogy.

House Bill 1955, signed into law February 27, 2024, eliminates Oklahoma’s 4.5% state sales tax on groceries. Local sales taxes, which range from 0% to 7% in Oklahoma, will continue to apply to groceries after the state sales tax exemption takes effect.

Oklahoma adopts SST definitions for food-related terms

In addition to establishing the partial sales tax exemption, HB 1955 defines “food and food ingredients” (aka, groceries), “candy,” and “soft drinks.”

Oklahoma is a member of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA, or SST), which strives to simplify and reduce the burden of sales tax compliance for businesses. To that end, it created a uniform library of definitions for the major tax base, including the terms “candy,” “dietary supplements,” “food and food ingredients,” “prepared food,” and “soft drinks.”

Although Oklahoma has been a member of SST since 2005, Oklahoma law didn’t provide a definition for these food-related products. With the enactment of HB 1955, it does.

“Food and food ingredients” are defined as “substances, whether in liquid, concentrated, solid, frozen, dried, or dehydrated form, that are sold for ingestion or chewing by humans and are consumed for their taste or nutritional value.”

HB 1955 specifies that “food and food ingredients” includes bottled water, candy, and soft drinks. However, “food and food ingredients” does not include:

Alcoholic beverages
Dietary supplements
Marijuana, usable marijuana, or marijuana-infused products
Prepared food
Tobacco

Oklahoma has adopted the SST definitions for candy, dietary supplements, prepared food, and soft drinks.

“‘Candy’ means a preparation of sugar, honey, or other natural or artificial sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts, or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops, or pieces. Candy shall not include any preparation containing flour or requiring refrigeration.”

“Dietary supplements” means any product, other than tobacco, that’s intended to supplement the diet and contains one or more of the following ingredients: a vitamin; a mineral; an herb or other botanical; an amino acid; a dietary substance to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any ingredient described above.

To qualify as a dietary supplement, a product must be:

“intended for ingestion in tablet, capsule, powder, softgel, gelcap, or liquid form, or, if not intended for ingestion in such form,” not represented as conventional food and not represented for use as a sole item of a meal or of the diet; and
“required to be labeled as a dietary supplement, identifiable by the label and as required pursuant to Section 101.36 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations”

“Prepared food” is:

Food that’s heated by the seller or sold in a heated state
Two or more food ingredients mixed or combined by the seller for sale as a single item
Food sold with eating utensils provided by the seller (e.g., cups, glasses, forks, knives, plates, spoons, or straws)

“Soft drinks” are any nonalcoholic beverages containing natural or artificial sweeteners. Beverages containing the following ingredients are not “soft drinks” under the sales tax law: milk or milk products; soy, rice, oat, or similar milk substitutes; or beverages with greater than 50% of fruit or vegetable juice by volume.

Per the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, SST member states may include or exclude “bottled water,” “candy,” “dietary supplements,” and “soft drinks” from their definition of “food and food ingredients.” Oklahoma lawmakers decided to include bottled water, candy, and soft drinks but exclude dietary supplements and prepared food.

Oklahoma temporarily restricts local taxes on food

In addition to the changes described above, HB 1955 specifies that if a local taxing jurisdiction decides to increase its local sales tax or excise tax, the rate increase will not apply to “food and food ingredients.” At least for a time.

Per the bill: “On of after the effective date of this act, until June 30, 2025, a county or a municipality that submits the question of a sales tax or excise tax to its voters shall provide that the increased rate does not apply to “food and food ingredients” as that term is defined in Section 1352 of Title 68 of the Oklahoma Statutes.”

Patience and persistence pays off

The Oklahoma Legislature has been trying to eliminate the state sales tax on food for years. What got the exemption over the line in 2024 is unclear, but it could be the rising cost of groceries. In praising the enactment of HB 1955, state Senator Tom Woods said, Oklahoma families could save an average of $700 per year as a result of the exemption, “providing much-needed relief in the face of inflationary pressures.”

The state sales tax exemption for food and food ingredients is scheduled to take effect in Oklahoma “sometime in August” 2024. As of this writing, the exact date hasn’t been announced.

UNCATEGORIZED

RightTool Wins 2024 Accountant Bracket Challenge

Published

7 months ago

April 12, 2024

Business Finance News

QuickBooks automation tool RightTool is the champion of the 2024 Accountant Bracket Challenge, presented by Accounting High, as the 3 seed defeated 1 seed CPA Jason Staats, host of the Jason Daily podcast, by a score of 355 votes to 110 votes in the final.

“To everybody in the RightTool Facebook community and all the RightTool users, all of you came together and helped us get the most votes, so I wanted to thank you guys for being the best community in the industry, in my opinion,” said Hector Garcia, CPA, co-founder of RightTool, during the championship final show, which was streamed by Accounting High on YouTube and LinkedIn earlier this afternoon.

RightTool joins accounting and bookkeeping app Uncat as winners of the ABC Tournament. In the inaugural Accountant Bracket Challenge last year, Uncat defeated Staats 339-190 in the championship match.

“I think what we’ve learned is … machines win,” Staats said about his consecutive losses in the tournament final. “We thought that would be down the road, but it’s happening.”

A grand total of 36,831 votes were cast during the three-week tournament.

“This has been so much fun. It only works if other people participate and pay attention and have fun, so thank you to the 1,806 ‘students’ who participated,” said Scott Scarano, an accounting firm owner who founded Accounting High, a community for forward-thinking accountants.

He added that the tournament will return next year, with some tweaks to make it better.

UNCATEGORIZED

Tesla to Launch RoboTaxi on August 8

Published

7 months ago

April 12, 2024

Business Finance News

Dana Hull
Bloomberg News
(TNS)

Tesla Inc. plans to unveil its long-promised robotaxi later this year as the electric carmaker struggles with weak sales and competition from cheap Chinese EVs.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk posted Friday on X, his social media site, that Tesla’s robotaxi will be unveiled on Aug. 8.

Shares gained as much as 5.1% in postmarket trading in New York. Tesla’s stock has fallen 34% this year through Friday’s close. Shortly before Musk posted the news about the robotaxi, he lost the title of third-richest person in the works to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc.

A fully autonomous vehicle, pitched to investors in 2019, has long been key to Tesla’s lofty valuation. In recent weeks, Tesla has rolled out the latest version of the driver-assistance software that it markets as FSD, or Full Self-Driving, to consumers.

The company has said that its next-generation vehicle platform will include both a cheaper car and a dedicated robotaxi. Though the company has teased both, it has yet to unveil prototypes of either. Musk’s Friday tweet indicates that the robotaxi is taking priority over the cheaper car, though both will be designed on the same platform.

Reuters reported earlier Friday that the carmaker had called off plans for the less-expensive vehicle and was shifting more resources toward trying to bring a robotaxi to market. Musk responded by saying “Reuters is lying,” without offering specifics.

Tesla also produced 46,561 more vehicles than it delivered in the first quarter, which has forced it to slash prices. U.S. consumers have been turning away from more expensive EVs in favor of hybrid models, causing many manufacturers to rethink pushes to electrify their fleets.

Splashy product announcements by Musk have always been a key part of Tesla’s ability to gin up enthusiasm among customers and investors without spending on traditional advertising. They don’t always work: the company unveiled the Cybertruck to enormous fanfare in November 2019, but production was delayed for years and the ramp up of that vehicle has been slow.

___

(With assistance from Catherine Larkin.)

UNCATEGORIZED

Retail Sales and Wages Grew in March

Published

7 months ago

April 12, 2024

Business Finance News

Retail sales grew at a steady pace in March, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released today by the National Retail Federation.

“As inflation for goods levels off, March’s data demonstrates steady spending by value-focused consumers who continue to benefit from a strong labor market and real wage gains,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “In this highly competitive market, retailers are having to keep prices as low as possible to meet the demand of consumers looking to stretch their family budgets.”

Total retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, were up 0.36% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.72% unadjusted year over year in March, according to the Retail Monitor. That compared with increases of 0.4% month over month and 2.7% year over year in February, based on the first 28 days in February.

The Retail Monitor calculation of core retail sales – excluding restaurants in addition to automobiles and gasoline – was up 0.23% month over month and up 2.92% year over year in March. That compared with increases of 0.27% month over month and 2.99% year over year in February, based on the first 28 days in February.

For the first quarter, total retail sales were up 2.65% year over year and core sales were up 3.12%.

This is the sixth month that the Retail Monitor, which was launched in November, has provided data on monthly retail sales. Unlike survey-based numbers collected by the Census Bureau, the Retail Monitor uses actual, anonymized credit and debit card purchase data compiled by Affinity Solutions and does not need to be revised monthly or annually.

March sales were up in six out of nine retail categories on a yearly basis, led by online sales, sporting goods stores and health and personal care stores, and up in five categories on a monthly basis. Specifics from key sectors include:

Online and other non-store sales were up 2.48% month over month seasonally adjusted and up 15.47% year over year unadjusted.
Sporting goods, hobby, music and book stores were up 0.86% month over month seasonally adjusted and up 8.33% year over year unadjusted.
Health and personal care stores were up 0.03% month over month seasonally adjusted and up 4.5% year over year unadjusted.
Grocery and beverage stores were up 1.17% month over month and up 4.22% year over year unadjusted.
General merchandise stores were up 0.13% month over month seasonally adjusted and up 3.38% year over year unadjusted.
Clothing and accessories stores were down 0.01% month over month and up 2.13% year over year unadjusted.
Building and garden supply stores were down 2.13% month over month and down 3.97% year over year unadjusted.
Furniture and home furnishings stores were down 1.46% month over month seasonally adjusted and down 5.28% year over year unadjusted.
Electronics and appliance stores were down 2.27% month over month seasonally adjusted and down 5.92% year over year unadjusted.

To learn more, visit nrf.com/nrf/cnbc-retail-monitor.

As the leading authority and voice for the retail industry, NRF provides data on retail sales each month and also forecasts annual retail sales and spending for key periods such as the holiday season each year.