Tax Dispute Over In-Store Bakery Heading To Missouri Supreme Court; Schnuck Markets Seeking Refund
October 21, 2013 | 1 min to read
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — The Missouri Supreme Court is set to consider a grocery chain's attempt to claim a tax refund for the energy costs of baking doughnuts, cakes and cookies.
Missouri has a tax exemption for electricity and gas used in manufacturing, processing, compounding, mining or producing, and a Department of Revenue regulation lists examples of what it considers "processing" with a reference to bakeries.
Ameren Missouri sought a refund on behalf of Schnuck Markets Inc. for energy used by several store bakeries to turn "hard, frozen chunks of raw dough that clank when they hit a table" into finished products consumable by the public. The Missouri Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments for Wednesday.
"The key issue in this sales tax dispute is whether the Department of Revenue is required to provide a refund to a taxpayer in accordance with a department regulation," attorneys wrote in an argument to the Supreme Court. Schnucks has stores in Missouri and other states, and Ameren Missouri is based in St. Louis.
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