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I purchased a few grocery items and went to pay for them. A couple jars of pickles, a bag of oranges and a bag of apples… when it was time to pay, I used a EBT card and then was told I owed still $4.88… to my surprise, I was charged tax on the apples and it was not covered by EBT… I saw on the receipt I was charged tax on fruit… so I asked management why and their explanation was that it was bagged… well so was the oranges but they were not taxed. Walmart is charging tax on certain food items that qualify as eligible for tax exemption in Florida… I guess I will have to report this to the department of agriculture and the tax office along with family and children services… this is wrong and discouraging healthy foods…enter image description here

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  • 10
    What is your question?
    – glibdud
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 12:19
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    yes, companies and governments rip people off, more news at 11
    – Stack Exchange Supports Israel
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 12:27
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    The tax is on the apples. Personally I'd ask the store manager; the goal is this understand, and if it really is an error get your money back and get the registers fixed; that all happens faster if you do it locally. You can grumble to state/town agencies at the same time (there is no federal sales tax) if you're feeling vindictive, but their first question is going to be "did you take this up with the store?". And there can be irrational lines drawn in taxes; this could be legit. I can easily see Florida exempting their signature product.
    – keshlam
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 14:20
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    Were you charged the $4.88 on your Visa because you didn't have enough on the EBT card, or were you charged the $4.88 on your Visa because Walmart considered the apples to be non-EBT-eligible? If the latter, that's a more serious problem than the $0.34 tax.
    – shoover
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 17:45

1 Answer 1

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The apples on your receipt are EBT eligible, per the Walmart online website.

You should not have been charged sales tax, as per the Florida dept. of Revenue guidance.

I don't think it's "fraud" (as you tagged the question), probably something mis-configured in their system. You can report sales tax violations to the Florida dept. of Revenue following the instructions on this site.

FWIW, in California this item is sold for $4.88 (pre-tax, food is tax exempt in CA), which is exactly what you paid. You can verify that by changing the zip code on their site to a California zip (for the Pensacola, FL store it shows $4.54, matching your receipt).

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  • What's the relevance of the apples selling for $4.88 in California? Just seems like a coincidence, no?
    – Craig W
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 16:16
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    Don't know, but seems too precise to be a coincidence IMHO.
    – littleadv
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 16:38
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    @CraigW The pre-/no-tax price in California, $4.88, is exactly the same as the pre-tax price in Florida, $4.54, plus the tax that was charged in Florida, $0.34. So purchasing these apples in California or at this Florida Walmart would cost $4.88 in either place. I think that's what littleadv is getting at.
    – shoover
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 17:42
  • A thorough explanation along with how to report this. It doesn't get any better than that.
    – Bob Baerker
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 2:34

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