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Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States

8/27/2002

Don't Pay Sales Tax!
This helpful notice from the Tennessee Department of Revenue reveals why you can now save as much as 9.75% on your vitamins and dietary supplements by shopping online here instead of at your local healthfood store.

The savings come from not having to pay Tennessee's 7 percent sales tax and the local-option sales tax that can run as high as 2.75%. You can avoid paying the tax - legally - by shopping online here instead of buying your vitamins at a store in Tennessee. You see, when the legislature raised the sales tax a penny, it exempted "food and food ingredients" from the increase. Ah, but vitamins and dietary supplements aren't "food" according to the legislature, and thus are subject to the new higher tax rate.

Incidentally, this online store sells a variety of other personal care items in addition to a range of dietary supplements from Summit Nutritionals. And all products are exempt from Tennessee's state and local sales taxes because of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which the Supreme Court ruled prohibits states from levying sales taxes on out-of-state merchants that don't have a physical presence in the state. And purchases made at the site have the added benefit of helping fund this website.