Mar 25, 2025
Missouri residents buy $18.4 billion in food each year. When they do, they pay a 1.225% tax on most of those purchases. Although food that can be purchased using SNAP benefits has been exempt from state tax since 1997, local sales taxes have still applied — and certain food is subject to both state and local taxation. These layered taxes can sometimes amount to as much as 8% tax in some communities.
This could be changing soon, though. State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican, has been trying for years to eliminate this grocery tax and the proposal is currently being considered as part of a larger package of tax reforms in the state that are aimed to reduce or eliminate income taxes.
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Coleman spoke about the bill, saying, “You’re going to hear from a number of people behind me who think this is a terrible idea. I hold a lot of minority views, so that doesn’t bother me too much. I’m hopeful I can convince you all that it’s the right thing to do.”
She believes that the tax should be eliminated because it is regressive, or hits poor people harder than wealthy people, and that tax is inappropriate on life essentials like both food and diapers.
However, there are some concerns that if the tax is eliminated, there would be too little revenue to fund state and municipal operations so the revenue would need to be made up elsewhere.
How removing the tax on groceries could help consumers
Currently, Missouri is one of ten states that tax groceries at the state level and that allow local taxes on food.
Understandably, grocery taxes have wide-ranging implications, considering how essential they are to Missourians and how many items get taxed. Research on Food policy suggests taxing groceries at a rate of 4.2% increases the likelihood of food insecurity by 3.3% among low-income households.
For Missouri residents, the very real cost isn’t a hypothetical. These taxes add around $60 to the monthly cost of groceries for a family of four, which is a problem when 12.7% of households statewide are food insecure and 656,600 households statewide rely on SNAP to pay for their food purchases — this is roughly 11% of the population or one out of every ten Missourians. And this is not even considering the rising food prices, and the impacts of tariffs.
If the grocery tax was eliminated, more households may be able to afford to put food on the table. In fact, with those contending with a combined 8% sales tax in some communities, the savings could be very substantial and provide a lot more wiggle room in household budgets.
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How would local businesses be impacted?
While saving consumers millions of dollars on grocery taxes would be good on individual wallets, tax cuts go both ways. Both the state and its many municipalities rely on the tax as a source of revenue to fund essential services.
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If the revenue were to disappear, it would result in a loss of $184 million for schools, which amounts to about $250 less per student in the state. City governments would lose $417 million and counties would have $308 million less. Ambulance, fire, and emergency services would also see cuts of around $77 million.
'“Every citizen is feeling the effect of inflation and the pain of purchasing goods and services at this time,” said David Dimmit, mayor of Brentwood in St. Louis County. ”And your city governments are no different, but cutting the sales taxes on groceries would be the wrong way to address the issue. Instead, it would only lead to unacceptable and potentially dangerous cuts to services expected and deserved by local residents."
The revenue would also need to be made up somewhere, especially as the state is also trying to eliminate income taxes. “If we do this, and we eliminate the income tax, where will we fund the state?” State Sen. Barbara Washington, a Democrat from Kansas City, said.
Despite these concerns, neighboring Kansas already did eliminate their grocery tax, and some Missouri residents are already planning to travel across the border to take advantage of tax-free food purchases there. Rather than losing this business entirely, stores in Missouri could benefit if the local tax is eliminated there as well.
Ultimately, with Missouri trying to reduce or phase out its income tax, it is likely that sales tax increases will still be added on other goods and services in the state. If the grocery sales tax is eliminated, consumers can expect to pay more tax on these other items, simply displacing the costs elsewhere. This means residents may not be saving as much as they hope overall — although, depending on what those other taxed products are, these purchases may be less essential than food. Those with limited income can forgo non-essential items and allot a greater portion of their monthly grocery budget to the actual groceries and not its tax.
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Christy Bieber has 15 years of experience as a personal finance and legal writer. She has written for many publications including Forbes, Kilplinger, CNN, WSJ, Credit Karma, Insurify and more.
