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June 2, 2009
Denver's Double Tax on Cooking Oil
Posted by Dave Blount at June 2, 2009 7:21 PM
Now that greedy bureaucrats have levied a tax on pretty much everything, it's time to start taxing things twice. In Denver, restaurants have to pay a separate tax on cooking oil — on top of the sales tax collected for the food cooked with it:
Colorado Restaurant Association Big Cheese Pete Meersman is afraid the city of Denver's Department of Revenue is jumping out of the frying pan and into the fryer.
At issue? During some recent restaurant-industry audits, the city has claimed separate sales tax on frying oil, claiming that the oil is a separate product because it is not absorbed into the product.
Try telling that to a cardiologist who wants you to cut down on French fries.
"Let's say you have a grilled cheese sandwich restaurant," Meersman said. "All the products you get in — including the oil, bread, cheese, garnishes — you don't pay sales tax on because you're going to turn around and add all those costs up, charge a price and the customer pays sales tax on top of that.
"The problem with trying to collect sales tax on wholesale cooking oil is that it is already being taxed on the retail side."
Yes, but by taxing the oil twice, the government can seize more wealth. The death tax works on the same principle.
Meersman wonders:
Are they going to start charging sales tax on potato peelings? Uneaten chicken bones? The water that's used to boil pasta? Clam shells?
This guy is full of ideas; he could have a future in the Obamination Administration.
On a tip from Wiggins.
