Grocery tax and property tax changes will be considered.
BOISE — Four major bills dealing with the grocery tax credit and property taxes were introduced in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Wednesday.
Calls for a fifth bill to entirely eliminate the sales tax on groceries, however, were stymied, at least temporarily.
The House Republican leadership team sponsored the first measure, which increases the grocery tax credit to $135 for all Idaho citizens.
House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, said the legislation would offset the impact of the 6 percent sales tax on food for virtually all Idahoans, while keeping the tax in place for nonresidents.
“We have numbers from the Division of Financial Management saying the average Idahoan spends $124 per year in sales tax on food,” he said.
The current tax credit is $120 for all Idahoans older than 65, and $100 for everyone else. That’s enough to offset the sales tax on $2,000 and $1,666.67 worth of groceries each year, respectively, or $166.67 and $138.89 per month.
Boosting the credit to $135 per person would offset $2,250 worth of purchases per year, or $187.50 per month. For a family of four, that would increase to $750.
Via the Moscow-Pullman Daily News