[susanerockymount]

I know at Food Lion I use to not have to pay tax when I use coupons but now you do. I know at the Piggly Wiggly I always paid tax on coupons used with food stamps. Walmart, Harris teeter I know I nevered paid tax on coupons. I am not sure about Kroger went ther the first time ever this past week i used coupons with food stamps and some non food items.

[cajunbaglady]

I have foodstamps presently and use alot of coupons at a time. I am charged .01 cents for every coupon used at all stores so if you use 20 coupons you will pay .20 cents if you use 8 coupons you will pay .08 cents extra. I live in louisiana.

[LACECOUPONS]

My sister has to pay sale taxes on her food stamps.As A matter of fact a lady was in food lion this week and use a coupon and had to pay sale tax,she was speechless. The cashier sadi it was something new about paying sales taxes with food stamps when you use a coupon.

[TDonoho123]

The only place I don't pay sales tax on the coupon amount is WalMart, unless I use a coupon that makes the item free and it tells me I can't use my EBT card. At Kroger -and other grocery stores- (in TN & KY) I pay sales tax on the coupon amount. (just the original amount, not the doubled portion). Sometimes they don't match up the coupons to the product right.....have food & nonfood in same transaction, the nonfood coupons come off the food portion......the total is the same, but it costs me more cash & less EBT. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not.
I will gladly pay the .05 sales tax to save $1.00 (10% tax on a .50 coupon-that doubles to $1)
It's the same as anyone else that pays with cash. They are also paying sales tax on the coupon amount.
I asked my FS caseworker if they would be interested in me teaching a coupon class, she said, "uh, probably not". I asked at the food pantry the last time I dropped off some stuff. she said "i doubt anyone would be interested" They don't know what they're missin out on!

[sweetpea101506]

Just to let everyone know, if I'm buying a bunch of stuff with coupons that will end up being free, I always add something cheap like Ramen Noodle Soup onto it as a filler so I can use my EBT card and not have to pay tax. For some reason I still have had to pay that $0.07 twice already.

[sugarprincess]

Thanks for this post I was about to ask and this came up. I have been couponing and stockpiling since last october and now my husband has lost his job and I have an interview on Tues for food stamps and I was worried I wouldn't be able to use coupons with the food stamps. Thanks everyone for all the advice.

[msvsu08]

yes you can but you will have to pay the tax from the coupons. Its usually not much tho.

[verucasalt1]

I don't believe in NY you would pay tax. I think it is a wonderful way to stretch that dollar and more people should.
Good luck to her!!!

[sspunk]

If she didn't use coupons would she have to pay the tax ? If not then I would think that somebody needs to look into it. Coupons are the same as cash. They also pay extra for 'handling' to the store. Never run into here in Ohio because most food is non taxable.

BEST
steve

[jtucker70]

I my self am new to foodstamps and couponing has I am reaserching ways make our budget go further in this tough economical time I got charged tax also when combining foodstamps and coupons but sI am able to pay the tax because I rather save that cost over all I than the person that put this up here its very help ful site I hope through my journey of learning couponing ect I will one day be able to help others with this task at hand

[hippiemama]

once again..... so glad we don't have taxes here in Montana!
i MAJORLY coupon with our foodstamps, never had any problems. i can make those bad boys stretch a long ways..... LOL. i just wish similac would send me more Qs that stuff gets to be expensive when you have a big chunka dunka baby! thank goodness you can buy formula with FS!!

but yeah, i've also even gotten the deals at WAGS or CVS where you buy certain items and get RRs or ECBs. like next week, i'm going to do the coke deal at CVS. i'll be able to use Qs, pay with foodstamps, and still get my ECBs!! i figure im buying the soda anyway, why not make it stretch a little farther and apply those ECBs/RRs to diapers or something? =)

[boingo82]

We don't have sales tax on food here so no experience with that.

I just got food stamps (DH is unemployed, we are scraping by like you wouldn't believe) and I coupon with them. The only trouble is that though we have food benefit only, Safeway's registers are WEIRD and for some reason some of the money comes off *after* the foodstamps payment, which has odd effects. Last week I got a pack of diapers and it still spit out $3.64 at me, cash. This week my total was $27.xx, but when I swiped my EBT card it charged the card for $38 and spit out $10.75 at me. I don't know what discounts they are but some store discounts or coupons or something come off *after* the foodstamps. I don't have this issue at other stores.

[boingo82]

Also? I am so glad we are on an EBT system that works like a debit card and not the old system of our parents' generation that was like "OH HAI EVERYBODY IN LINE, I AM USING FOODSTAMPS!!"

Because since I coupon, and since I buy all my produce at a produce-only store, people who see me in the regular stores would be like "OH MY GOSH THAT WOMAN IS BUYING 25 BOXES OF FRUIT SNACKS AND 8LBS OF CHEESE AND NOTHING ELSE WITH HER FOODSTAMPS! POOR PEOPLE ARE SO SO SO DUMB." But you know how it is, right, fellow couponers? I am buying 25 boxes of fruit snacks, yes, but that is a year's worth of packed school lunches, and I'm stocking up on the cheese because unopened packs are good for months, and I'm buying my other food at other stores. Any individual shopping trip in any particular store paints a terribly unbalanced view of our diet around here.

[Clipping Along]

Thanks for the initial question. I was wondering myself; a young niece is going through a divorce and has two young children. She just signed up for assistance. I'll pass this info on to her so that she can stretch her budget.

[Ladyblades]

In Indiana, I am told, the tax is exempt for FS users and they are not charged sales tax on FS purchases. No one I know has ever been charged a service fee for using coupons and the stores gladly accept them.

[lovemydh]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE coupons with FS. It does make them strech much much longer with using them.

[fredysmama]

How can you use coupons with WIC if everything is free??

[mommy2my2babies]

When using Qs with WIC, it just makes the total that the cashier fills in on the check less. It saves the government money by doing that.

[fredysmama]

Originally Posted by mommy2my2babies

When using Qs with WIC, it just makes the total that the cashier fills in on the check less. It saves the government money by doing that.

I get it now thanks...but you know what I've noticed? is that I live in a small town, so my grocery store is small, and a lot of people are on WIC and I see the store taking advantage by hiking the juice prices WAY up...the price of the WIC approved juice is $9.49!!! and the ones that are not WIC approved are 2.50...it's totally unbelievable, but they can do it...I see my check for 3 juices is about $30 when they write on it! So they are def. scamming the gov't, and it bothers me, but that's where I get my WIC food

[boingo82]

Originally Posted by fredysmama

I get it now thanks...but you know what I've noticed? is that I live in a small town, so my grocery store is small, and a lot of people are on WIC and I see the store taking advantage by hiking the juice prices WAY up...the price of the WIC approved juice is $9.49!!! and the ones that are not WIC approved are 2.50...it's totally unbelievable, but they can do it...I see my check for 3 juices is about $30 when they write on it! So they are def. scamming the gov't, and it bothers me, but that's where I get my WIC food

Wow, that's sleazy of them!

[coley31]

I've never paid tax on coupons use with FS, however I have seen that if you use a q to buy a non FS item, sometimes the value of the q will be taken from your FS total, not for the item which the q was for. IE if you bought $37 in food and $4 razors with a $1 q, I'd end up paying $36 in FS and still have $4 balance for the razors.

[PrincessBoo]

Originally Posted by fredysmama

I get it now thanks...but you know what I've noticed? is that I live in a small town, so my grocery store is small, and a lot of people are on WIC and I see the store taking advantage by hiking the juice prices WAY up...the price of the WIC approved juice is $9.49!!! and the ones that are not WIC approved are 2.50...it's totally unbelievable, but they can do it...I see my check for 3 juices is about $30 when they write on it! So they are def. scamming the gov't, and it bothers me, but that's where I get my WIC food

Yeah, they do this in Indiana too. Even worse is Wal-Mart in our area though. They have switched to carrying only the GV brand of cheese, peanut butter, infant cereal, and milk in the "approved" sizes and throw a fit if you complain about it. Some of the moms and I found out the best thing to do about this is complain to the WIC nutritionist. She can file an complaint against the store with the state.

[itsmecristin]

i have been on foodstamps for a while now
and i always use coupons
i get so much stuff for free and get so much more use out of my foodstamps
i havent been charged tax but i live in nj so maybe it differs from state to state

[pickaname]

Hi, i can tell you, seperate your food stamp items and non food stamp items into 2 diff. orders, some stores take your non food stamp qs off your food stamps and then you are left paying cash.

[itsmecristin]

i usually dont have to seperate my orders
it really depends on where you go
usually at shoprite the foodstamps are seperate from non food items
but then i went to acme for the first time and it didnt seperate them
i guess it depends on the store