Do You Have To Pay Sales Tax on Your Chicken Feed?

[gtaus]

There isn't number of birds or egg sales to be eligible?

Not according to the way the law is written. It does not say how many, or how few, chickens you have to keep or how many eggs you have to sell. The only question was, do you sell any eggs? Yes/No. If yes, you qualify for the tax-exemption status on chicken feed.

If you raise meat birds for personal consumption, then you have to pay tax on feed. If you raise meat birds for sale, then you don't.

Of course, that may differ from state to state. And although I have had a tax-free status on chicken feed for many, many years, that is not a guarantee that my paperwork will go through again. It should, but I won't know for about a week.

As I have heard from some respondents, they don't have any sales tax in their states. So, they don't even have to work the exemption status issue.

 

[gtaus]

Having worked retail for many years, I moderate my expectations.

I understand. But I thought a store manager at Fleet would have a better understanding of this issue that effects the majority of their customers.

All important for reporting sales to the state, even though eggs and chicken for human consumption are untaxed in my state, still had to fill out quarterly sales tax reports or pay a penalty.

No requirements here for that. But I don't think I would bother with all the paperwork for the little extra money I would have to pay in taxes on chicken feed. I imagine my taxes on chicken feed would be less than $50.00 per year, hardly worth the time and effort to go through quarterly sales tax reports or pay a penalty.

FL doesn't tax feed for livestock, only pet food - so it also wasn't worth the hassle.

Yeah, I am not saying my backyard flock is a business and reporting it as such. Just that I am selling some eggs and therefore am entitled to the tax-exemption status when I purchase the feed. Like you, I could easily create a situation where the chicken business loses money every year and end up with a tax write off. But that's not worth my time or effort.

 

[tripletfeb]

I have no idea if we pay tax on feed here in Ohio but I'm sure we do. I know that certain human food is not taxed while some is. If it's something that is needed to survive(milk, eggs, bread...) it's not taxed. If it's a luxury(pop, chips, alcohol...) it's taxed. And different counties have different tax rates

 

[tripletfeb]

I have no idea if we pay tax on feed here in Ohio but I'm sure we do. I know that certain human food is not taxed while some is. If it's something that is needed to survive(milk, eggs, bread...) it's not taxed. If it's a luxury(pop, chips, alcohol...) it's taxed. And different counties have different tax rates

Now that I think about it, yes, Ohio taxes animal food. I remember when I was a cashier at Petsmart, certain companies and non profits had to show paper to be tax exempt at check out

 

[gtaus]

Here in New Jersey 7%. But with the Veterans 10% discount I come out 3% to the good. Plus I feel I've beat up the tax man on my end.

That's great that you get a Veteran's 10% discount. Our local Fleet store does not offer a Vet's discount. Every once in a while, they have a Veteran's Appreciation weekend sale at 10% discount, but not everyday.

Home Depot still gives me a 10% discount on most items. That is a good deal which I take advantage of when I can. But they don't sell chicken feed.

 

[gtaus]

I have no idea if we pay tax on feed here in Ohio but I'm sure we do. I know that certain human food is not taxed while some is. If it's something that is needed to survive(milk, eggs, bread...) it's not taxed. If it's a luxury(pop, chips, alcohol...) it's taxed. And different counties have different tax rates

Yeah, it's really strange how some foods are classified as either taxable or tax free. I once bought some tomato and pepper plants at Menards. I grabbed a bag of cotton candy in the checkout line for the kids visiting at that time. I got charged tax on the starter plants, but the cotton candy was tax free! How does that make any sense?

Our sales tax is a combination of a state sales tax plus any local government taxes. And that will vary from town to town.

It's interesting to see how the states treat items, like chicken feed, as taxable or not. In my case, if I get my tax-exempt status renewed, I'll save up to $50 per year. That's not a lot of money, but it's worth another 3 bags of feed at the store.

 

[Seaslug]

Pennsylvania is very specific about what entities can be tax exempt and even those entities can only be exempt from taxes on certain things. Tax exemptions require renewals (which cost around $90 now, I believe) and last a few years. You must present your tax exempt number to any business you purchase from and to receive a tax exempt number we (the library that I am director of) had to provide our federal id number.
Unrelated aside: In Pennsylvania it use to be that you could purchase yarn tax free if you stated that you were purchasing to make clothing, because clothing was (is?) not taxed in PA. But I am not certain that they permit that any longer.
Pennsylvania got very draconian with its taxes -- coming down on non-profits to ensure that everything that was sold in even the smallest fundraiser was taxed so that the State got their percentage. I suppose you have to raise funds someway. I can attest that it is not easy to try to run an organization on fundraisers.

 

[gtaus]

Tax exemptions require renewals (which cost around $90 now, I believe) and last a few years.

That's too bad. It would cost me less than $50.00 in tax per year if I had to pay tax on chicken feed. It would not make any sense for me to pay $90 every 2 years for a tax free license.

I can attest that it is not easy to try to run an organization on fundraisers.

No, I suppose not. It appears to me that taxes hit the smallest organizations the hardest, and they probably need (and appreciate) being able to get stuff tax free the most.

 

[gtaus]

UPDATE: My tax-exempt status for Agriculture Production went through. So, to make sure, I bought a bag of chicken fee today and no tax was added on to the purchase. I know a ~10% sales tax on a single purchase is not very much, but it does add up over the year when you buy hundreds of dollars of feed.

BONUS: Now that I got my Agriculture Production exemption approved, I am also eligible to get other farm related products tax-exempt. I don't know what all is covered, but all I have to do is tell them at the register that I have a tax-exempt approval and anything, and everything, that is eligible will now be tax free at the checkout.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this posting. Hope it may have encouraged some of you to check into applying for a tax-exempt status as well. It might be worth the effort depending on your state laws. It was for me.

 

[Iluveggers]

We have to pay tax here. (The farm feed we do not, but for my personal chicken flock, yes…I don’t hold the farm certificate or buy the farm’s feed.)

I feel fortunate though that I found a local feed source and can get fresh, a 50# bag of layer for $13. When I was buying from TSC it was a lot more.