Food Tax in Tennessee

If passed, the sales tax on food would drop half-a percent at the first of every July until its completely gone.

Bo Watson:

"the tax would be eliminated in 2018."

Senator Bo Watson and 16-other lawmakers signed on as sponsors of this bill last week...

Meaning, it already has enough votes to pass *one* chamber of the General Assembly.

Bo Watson

"people are always challenging us to come up with creative ways to somehow reduce or eliminate that portion of the sales tax."

GRX:

Once the tax is gone, a family that spends 400-dollars a month on groceries would save 24-dollars each month...

Or 288-dollars a year.

Joe Legge

"several other food tax reduction bills will compete with the 2018 proposal this session, making this a popular topic among many lawmakers."

GRX:

Other efforts include dropping the tax only on milk and bread... Increasing the tobacco tax to reduce the food tax... And creating a pornography tax to lower the food tax.

Ron Naylor:

"there must be another reason the other states don't tax food, they find the tax hits poor people hardest."

Tennesseans for Fair Taxation favor the tobacco tax swap, since it would cut the food tax faster... And possibly reduce the number of smokers.

Shoppers we talked to say, they just want the tax gone.

Dianne Trubiano:

"that would be great, oh yeah, I would be happy."

Donna Weldon

"save a lot of money, its easier to feed 4 people if you don't have to pay tax on the food."

Tennessee's tax on food generates about $450-million for the state every year. That's a small number when you consider the state's budget is over $20 billion.