The next time you get a pizza to take home and bake it yourself, you may want to consider where you buy it. Your choice could save you a buck or two in taxes.
In Washington, there's no sales tax on take-and-bake pizza from a grocery store. It's food like everything else. But go to a Papa Murphy's or N.Y.C. Pizzeria or somewhere like that in Vancouver and you'll get a different bill. No matter what you like on your pizza, it comes with extra tax. That's because Washington considers take-and-bake pizza in a restaurant "prepared food." It doesn't have to but can and does tax it.
State Rep. Sharon Wylie wants to get rid of the tax. She's putting the ingredients in that legislative pizza together right now, but it's not ready to go in the oven yet.
"It'll make good food less expensive without that added tax. It's about people's budgets," says Wylie.
But the state could lose millions in potential revenue if the tax is repealed.
"That's the thing that could keep this from passing," says Wylie.
Papa Murphy's has almost 200 stores across the state, and its corporate offices are in Vancouver.
A company spokesperson says, "Our pizza is not a finished product, it shouldn't be taxed like it."
At N.Y.C. Pizzeria on Chkalov in Vancouver, owner Makahan Uppal knows the business and knows his taxes.
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