Business Notes Levies

Cupcakes are, but doughnuts aren't. Ritz crackers are, but saltines aren't. Granola bars are, but granola cereal isn't. Confused? So are shoppers in California, where the state government last week extended its sales tax to candy and "snack foods." But the exemption for food products remains, forcing beleaguered bureaucrats into an exercise in semantics: What is a "food," and what is a "snack"? The extra $200 million may help balance the books, but it has nearly unbalanced grocers as they try to price chocolate chips (a tax-exempt baking product) vs. chocolate kisses (candy, which is taxed), or a freshly bagged slice of pie (tax free) as opposed to a similarly sized prepackaged pie (taxable). While conservative talk-show hosts ridicule the new laws as regulation run amuck, liberal critics blister them as unfair: a worker's pretzel is subject to the tax, but a CEO's caviar is not.