EBT card (SNAP) and coupons

[cmbearden]

It's been a while but it's something that has been on my mind. I was behind a woman at the store who used coupons for most of her purchases and then scanned her EBT card to pay. Has anyone ever heard of the social services running a couponing class for EBT users? It would help the $$ for food go a whole lot further. I applaud this woman and her effort to feed her family and stretch the EBT $ further. I wish more EBT users used coupons, too often they have crap in their cart.

[JenVi]

Here in Illinois when you use the EBT card and coupons you still end up paying some tax. My mom gets this card and when I show her what coupons to use and she uses them she ends up having to pay some tax. I think it is pretty silly when the person using these benefits is trying to stretch them out and you penalize them for using coupons.

Just my 2 cents.

Jen

[mystry72]

I had tried using coupons when they still had the paper food stamps and ended up having to pay tax. This was exactly why I quit using them with food stamps. But, I decided to try again and now don't have to pay any taxes on my purchases, I don't know what changed between now and then but I don't mind a bit.

[tylianna]

Yesterday I bought some food and 3 bags of candy. I used a coupon for $1.00 off the candy and I ended up having to pay the sales tax on that coupon.

I also want to remind anyone receiving benefits that in most states you can use it to purchase seeds or plants that produce food. I have a huge garden and saved a lot of money last year on produce. We have been on benefits for a couple months since dh lost his job, but I am still going to garden, and it makes me happy that I can stretch my food budget. If it was not for that option, I would not be able to afford it.

[Mermanity27]

Yesterday I bought some food and 3 bags of candy. I used a coupon for $1.00 off the candy and I ended up having to pay the sales tax on that coupon.

I also want to remind anyone receiving benefits that in most states you can use it to purchase seeds or plants that produce food. I have a huge garden and saved a lot of money last year on produce. We have been on benefits for a couple months since dh lost his job, but I am still going to garden, and it makes me happy that I can stretch my food budget. If it was not for that option, I would not be able to afford it.

Awesome info! I didn't know that.

[loaslaen]

Here in Illinois when you use the EBT card and coupons you still end up paying some tax. My mom gets this card and when I show her what coupons to use and she uses them she ends up having to pay some tax. I think it is pretty silly when the person using these benefits is trying to stretch them out and you penalize them for using coupons.

Just my 2 cents.

Jen

The reason sales tax is charged is because the retailer still gets the full amount of the item. So if a store sells you a food item for $2 but you have a $1 coupon, you are paying $1 for the food item with Food Stamps, which are not taxed, and the manufacturer is paying the remaining $1 for the food item, which is payment from a third source, which IS taxed. Since the store actually receives full payment, then taxes have to be paid on the amount that wasn't paid for by EBT. EBT amount is not taxable, but amount paid by manu qs is.

The Food Stamp program is a supplemental program as well. It is not meant to provide ALL of your groceries. The figures they use to determine benefit amount accounts for the recipient buying at least 1/3 of their groceries for the month with their own money. The amount a recipient can save in a month using coupons more than makes up for the little bit they have to pay out-of-pocket.

I do understand the problem with having to pay cash though, because sometimes there may not be ANY cash on hand to actually pay. Someone with no cash to spare, but plenty of benefits to last the month, might find it hard to part with any amount of change. That can be a precarious situation, but it really is better to try to figure out how to improve your overall budget. FS recipients still have to purchase non-food necessities, so if you use coupons for those, you can use the savings to apply toward tax for using coupons with FS. You could eventually build up a good stockpile of nonfood items and a good stockpile of food and may even build up food stamp benefits to roll into the next month, and then when you no longer qualify, you can still carry a balance and use the remainder of your benefits during that transition time.

[434Teresa]

If you cant eat on the amount of food stamps you get and have to spend $200 on food each month other than the food stamps. I think it would be better to just pay the tax on the coupons and do your deals that way maybe the food stamps last all month and you may not have to spend $200 in cash on food maybe $30 in cash instead.

$200 in foodstamps use $50 in coupons pay 10%/$5 in cash on the coupons save $50 in foodstamps..this makes more sense to me for later if you run out of foodstamps you may have to pay $50 in cash

[OneHotMomma]

I think it depends on your state. In Ohio, I use coupons with my foodstamps everytime I shop. The only time I ever have to pay cash is when I mix nonfood items in with my food items on the same order. Most times, if I'm buying only food I use my coupons and the foodstamps cover the rest.

[Troop1379]

i do a coupon class here in Virginia for social services and yes you have to pay tax on the coupon it is not much

[Hoshi]

Here's why you pay sales tax on coupons: You don't! Here's the deal. It has to do with how stores calculate tax. They have to charge tax before coupons, so how they add it up is tax on the amount owed plus tax on the face value of the coupon, which would add up to the proper tax. If you weren't using EBT, which is not supposed to be taxed.
Taxing coupons renders many of them invalid...many say "Void if taxed"....let the grocery stores chew on that one.
Walmart here does not tax coupons, so I often use them there instead of going through the hassle of digging out change....unless the deal is too good to pass up.