Grocery Sales Tax Decrease Means Texarkana Will Pay
By: Shelli Briery
Updated: March 1, 2007
As the state of Arkansas prepares for a tax break...Texarkana is getting ready to pay up.
The legislature recently reduced the sales tax on groceries from six to three percent. Thats effective July first. But in January 2008, Texarkana, Arkansas shoppers will pay a 7-precent sales tax on groceries. Right now they pay nothing at all. The Arkansas side tax exemption will be no more because of a streamlined sales tax act, approved by the state legislature in 2003 targeting internet merchants. The act provides a uniform tax rate for the state to collect money from remote sellers, but it hasnt been mandated by the federal government. Texarkana, Arkansas has been exempt from sales taxes on groceries since the 1970s because it is a bordering city to the Texas side. Arkansas joined the internet sales tax initiative voluntarily. If Congress does pass it, then internet merchants will have to charge the uniform tax from where ever their buyer is located.
