{"id":12159,"date":"2007-11-02T06:09:49","date_gmt":"2007-11-02T13:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/11\/02\/on-halloween-the-tax-man-cometh.html"},"modified":"2007-11-02T06:09:49","modified_gmt":"2007-11-02T13:09:49","slug":"on_halloween_the_tax_man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/11\/02\/on_halloween_the_tax_man.html","title":{"rendered":"On Halloween &#8230; <i>the Tax Man Cometh &#8230;<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"img-shadow-right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Jack-o-Lantern\" height=\"143\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/jack-o-lantern.jpg\" width=\"95\" \/> <\/div>\n<p>According to the state of Iowa, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/nation\/2007-10-31-pumpkin-tax_N.htm?csp=34\" target=\"_blank\">pumpkins are not food<\/a>, and therefore are subject to state sales tax.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"inside-copy\"> Renee Mulvey, the department&#8217;s spokeswoman, said officials decided that pumpkins are used primarily for Halloween decorations, not food, and should be taxed. Previously, they had been considered an edible squash and exempted from the tax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inside-copy\"> As a result, the department ruled that pumpkins are taxable if they are advertised for use as jack-o&#8217;-lanterns or decorations, or if it&#8217;s understood that they will be used for that purpose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inside-copy\"> Iowans planning to eat pumpkins can still get an exemption from the sales tax, if they fill out the &#8220;Iowa Sales Tax Exemption Certificate&#8221; form. Pumpkins also are exempt if they are of the specific variety used to make pies and are advertised that way. Pumpkins purchased with food stamps also are exempt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inside-copy\"> &#8220;We made the change because we wanted the sales tax law to match what we thought the predominant use was,&#8221; Mulvey said. &#8220;We thought the predominant use was for decorations or jack-o&#8217;-lanterns.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What about if we carve our pumpkins for display and then roast the seeds for consumption.&nbsp; Well, I guess we just need to fill out the form first (in triplicate) to save some sales taxes.&nbsp; How many folks will do that, I wonder?<\/p>\n<p>Feh.<\/p>\n<p><small><\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/j-walkblog.com\/index.php?\/weblog\/posts\/pumpkins_are_not_food\/\" target=\"_blank\">J-Walk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the state of Iowa, pumpkins are not food, and therefore are subject to state sales tax. Renee Mulvey, the department&#8217;s spokeswoman, said officials decided that pumpkins are&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-drink","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131806,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/16\/pumpkins.html","url_meta":{"origin":12159,"position":0},"title":"Pumpkins!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 16-Oct-16 5:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Margie and I served a shift this afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch our church holds each year (http:\/\/gshep.org\/pumpkinpatch). It was a pretty busy time -- we always had 1-5 families circulating around the patch with wagons the entire three hour period -- but a lot of fun. [Personal advert follows:]The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":936,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/31\/traditions.html","url_meta":{"origin":12159,"position":1},"title":"Traditions","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 31-Oct-01 9:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've commented before on how Katherine has, to put it mildly, cut into our free time. One place that's visible, to me at least, as in the traditions that Margie...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Parenting&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13642,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/01\/happy_halloween.html","url_meta":{"origin":12159,"position":2},"title":"Happy Halloween!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Nov-08 11:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Jack-o-lanterns on the doorstep. UPDATE: Katherine and Margie's pumpkins, respectively. And, in fact, these were taken on Wednesday night, after we carved them. The weather was such that, by...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weather (mine)&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weather (mine)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/weather-and-seasons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3025\/2991779187_7eeef6588f.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30727,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/21\/pumpkins-picked.html","url_meta":{"origin":12159,"position":3},"title":"Pumpkins Picked","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 21-Oct-12 1:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"From Parish Patch. Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46196,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/31\/have-a-happy-hobbit-halloween.html","url_meta":{"origin":12159,"position":4},"title":"Have a Happy Hobbit Halloween!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 31-Oct-14 4:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But remember -- no pumpkins!(h\/t +Scott Randel) View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30585,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/15\/pumpkin-patch.html","url_meta":{"origin":12159,"position":5},"title":"Pumpkin Patch","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Oct-12 11:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So my church (Good Shepherd Episcopal in Centennial, http:\/\/gshep.org) has been doing a \"pumpkin patch\" fund-raiser\u00a0the past few years, proceeds of which go to our various outreach (community charity) programs. \u00a0It's been a surprising success, which is very cool.Sunday was supposed to be the date when the pumpkin truck arrived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}