S.D. Sales Tax for Giving Away Food (?) Suspended Temporarily

Ruth McCambridge

August 10, 2011

August 9, 2011; Source: Sioux Falls Argus Leader | A bizarre law in South Dakota requires programs that give away food to the needy to pay a sales tax to Feeding South Dakota, the organization that supplies them with food. Until now the law was seldom enforced, but after a 2010 audit revealed the fact that the programs owed the tax, plans were made to begin taxing approximately 275 nonprofits as of October 1. That date has now been extended by the governor to March 1, 2012, giving legislators enough time to try to get the law changed so that it exempts the nonprofits. It appears that a number of legislators are stepping forward to do just that. Are any of our readers familiar with such taxes in other states? – Ruth McCambridge

About the author

Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

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