Ever since California last month extended its sales tax to include snack foods, state officials have been wrestling with which food items fall under the country’s first and only “snack tax.”
Jewish consumers soon began wondering how Passover matzah would be classified. Last week, Brad Sherman, chairman of the State Board of Equalization, issued his ruling:
“Our staff has reflected Solomonic wisdom in determining that regular matzah, your full-size bread of affliction as mentioned in the Torah, is not a cracker, which is taxable,” he said.
However, he added, “matzah miniatures have been determined to be crackers, since there’s no evidence when the people of Israel left the land of Egypt that they were popping bite-size matzahs into their mouths.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
