photo by: AdobeStock

A brightly lit supermarket aisle filled with a variety of grocery products is shown in this stock photo.

Here’s a resolution for you in 2025: Use fewer forks. It might save you money (although wet wipe bills may eat into some of those savings.)

What possibly could be my point? Not to quibble, but I have four of them. (I think that is true even if we are talking about a spork.) Forks can cost you money — and I learned that by reading the details of the law that eliminates the state sales tax on grocery items, which begins on Wednesday, Jan. 1.

For all of 2025, and presumably forever thereafter, Kansas consumers will stop paying state sales taxes on grocery items. But the law creates a natural question: What qualifies as a grocery item? Come to find out, forks play a role in the answer.

Perhaps you thought that this sales tax on groceries issue meant that you would stop paying sales taxes on anything you bought in a grocery store. That’s wrong. Maybe you thought it meant that full sales taxes would be charged in every other type of business in the state. That’s also wrong. Convenience stores, dollar stores, bakeries and many other retail establishments soon — on Jan. 1 — must stop charging sales taxes on certain types of items.

The Kansas Department of Revenue has produced a guide that explains which foods and beverages will be subject to a full tax and which ones will be exempt from state sales taxes. That’s where I learned about forks. (I mean in this context. I’ve been a user for a couple of years.) So, let’s start by explaining that issue, and then moving on to several other items you may want to know about this new law.

Forks, plates and utensils are signs of a tax. If a retail worker gives you a fork with your food, or puts it on a plate, or serves your soda in a styrofoam cup, those are all signs that you are going to be paying the state sales tax on your purchase.

There are a couple of takeaways from this bit of knowledge. First, you are going to pay sales tax on your restaurant orders. This law wasn’t designed to give you a break on your trip through the drive-thru. Second — and this is where life blooms anew for those of us who strategize on saving pennies — the exact same item may be taxed in one setting but not taxed in another.

The example given in the state publication involves a bagel and a container of cream cheese. In the first scenario, you buy that at a bakery counter and the attendant gives you a bagel and one of those packages of plastic utensils. You are going to pay the state sales tax in that instance.

In the second scenario, everything is the same, except you aren’t given the bag of plastic utensils. You aren’t going to pay the state sales tax in that instance. The state even points out that if the bagel shop has a kiosk in the corner that has forks and knives and napkins for you to get yourself, you still will be exempt from paying the state sales tax.

Under state law, the act of giving your customer utensils makes your food item “prepared food,” which is a type of food that must be taxed. That will make a difference in your wallet. Your $5 bagel has 33 cents added onto it because of the 6.5% state sales tax rate. OK, money bags, that’s not significant to you? If you have 300 bagels a year, that’s an extra $99 you are paying. Who’s laughing now? (Probably the makers of Ozempic, because they’re pretty sure they’ve found a new customer.)

Here’s a look at some other things to know about the new sales tax change:

• Which foods are exempt from the state sales tax? A simple way to think about it is any normal grocery food that you would buy to prepare and eat at home. Or maybe in your car. Or on the way to your car. Yes, I’m talking about candy. Your Snickers bar — whether you buy it in a grocery store, convenience store or elsewhere — should be free of state sales tax. Also specifically mentioned in the law are soda, bottled water and “dietary supplements.” That means a bottle of vitamins shouldn’t have the state sales tax attached. Bakery goods, as long as they don’t come with a dreaded utensil, also are free of state tax.

• Which foods will still be taxed? I’ve already mentioned that food you would consider “restaurant food” will continue to be taxed. To expand on that, however, items like Chinese food or fried chicken from the grocery store deli or the convenience store kitchen will be taxed, even if you don’t get utensils. That’s because the food was prepared by the retailer. That makes it prepared food, which is a taxed item. It doesn’t matter if the retailer prepared the food elsewhere. For example, if a food truck smokes its brisket at a commercial kitchen and then sells it out of a food truck 10 miles away, it still must be taxed, the state’s publication noted.

At this point, those of you who are really mentally sharp today (ginkgo tablets should now be cheaper) may be asking, “What about bakery items?” Grocery and convenience stores often make their own doughnuts and such, yet I previously told you those were exempt from state sales tax. Indeed, you are firing on all cylinders today. Bakery items are prepared food under the law, and would be subject to state tax, except state lawmakers specifically created an exemption from the state sales tax. In other words, bakery items are the one type of prepared food that gets a break on state sales tax. What can I tell you — some laws have loopholes and some have doughnut holes.

The prepared food situation will create some other oddities, I expect. For example, salads (if you are into that sort of thing) could be confusing. If a grocery store prepares its own mix of greens and salad dressings to sell in its produce section, I believe that would be prepared food that would be subject to state sales tax. However, ready-to-eat salads that come from some other company far away, I think, would just be normal grocery-store food that would be exempt from state sales tax.

• How much am I going to save? You won’t be paying the 6.5% state sales tax on any food that you buy that receives the state exemption. However, you already have started receiving some of those savings. The state has been eliminating its sales tax on food in phases. On Jan. 1, 2023, the state tax on food went from 6.5% to 4%. On Jan. 1, 2024, it dropped to 2%, and on Jan. 1, 2025, it drops to zero. So, compared to the day before, the state tax you pay will fall by 2 percentage points.

• So, if I choose the right items, I won’t pay any sales tax on food? Mmm, no. Notice that I have been careful to say the state sales tax on food. Local sales taxes on food still apply. Thus, the citywide and countywide sales taxes will still be charged on food purchases in Lawrence.

• How much are those local sales taxes? In general, Lawrence’s local sales tax rate — which includes the county sales taxes — is 2.8%. However, perhaps you have noticed this sales tax stuff generally gets complicated. Lawrence, like many cities, has several “special taxing districts.” Those districts get to charge extra sales tax to pay for the cost to develop things like streets, parking lots and other infrastructure that serves those stores. Lawrence has four of those special taxing districts. They are: On the east side of New Hampshire Street, near Ninth Street: 3.8%; the Bauer Farms development near the northeast corner of Sixth and Wakarusa Drive: 3.8%; The Oread Hotel and associated shops and restaurants inside: 3.8%; The Crossing development on KU’s West Campus near 21st and Iowa streets: 4.3%.

All those districts sell food in one form or another, and a couple have or will have grocery stores. Bauer Farms has Sprouts, and The Crossing will be home to a new Dillons store.

Special taxing districts aren’t required to have any signage alerting consumers of the presence of the special tax, so it is the sort of thing that consumers have to know on their own. The Kansas Department of Revenue comes closest to giving you a tool for that purpose. It has a webpage at kssst.kdor.ks.gov/lookup.cfm where you can enter an address to see its sales tax rate. Or, if you want to look at an entire community at once, I suggest the department’s webpage that lists quarterly changes to sales tax rates. That is at: www.ksrevenue.gov/salesratechanges.html.