Are Utah grocery stores now charging restaurant tax? – Deseret News

Utah Senator Lincoln Fillmore is proposing a bill to close a tax loophole that exempts grocery stores selling fast food items from the state’s restaurant tax. Fillmore argues that the tax should apply to portions of grocery stores that function like restaurants to ensure fairness in the marketplace. However, some lawmakers, like Rep. Norm Thurston, see this proposal as a tax increase on food and are opposed to it. Fillmore’s draft bill did not receive immediate action from the Legislature’s Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee, but it will be considered during the upcoming legislative session. The bill is supported by the Utah Restaurant Association, but opposed by the Utah Retail Merchants Association and the Utah Food Industry Association. The debate on whether to apply the restaurant tax to fast food items sold in grocery stores follows a recent legal challenge that stopped a vote to remove the state’s sales tax on food. Fillmore maintains that his proposal is not an additional tax on food, but rather a move towards equity in the taxation of prepared food items.

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