in an effort to reduce the growing prevalence of overweight and obesity, food taxes have been introduced in several european countries, the so-called ‘obesitax’. as yet little evidence is at hand, policy measures are being taken to counterweight the consumption of unhealthy food or the increasing diet-related diseases. several questions need to be discussed, starting from a general perspective:...

Food is taxed differently by states and local municipalities depending on where the food is intended to be prepared and consumed. Food purchased to be prepared at home is considered food at home, or non-prepared foods that would typically be purchased at a grocery store. Most states either totally or partially exclude food at home from the general sales tax. That exclusion generates a debate be...

an active area of public health policy in the united states is policy meant to promote healthy eating, reduce overconsumption of food, and prevent overweight/obesity. public discussion of such obesity prevention policies includes intense ethical disagreement. we suggest that some ethical disagreements about obesity prevention policies can be seen as rooted in a common concern with equality or w...

In the past year Denmark has introduced a “fat tax,” Hungary a “junk food tax,” and France a tax on sweetened drinks. 2 Peru has announced plans to tax junk food, and other countries, notably Ireland, are also considering such taxes. Last year’s UN high level summit on non-communicable disease recognised a role for food taxes, and the UK prime minster, David Cameron has said the UK should consi...

In this article we present new evidence of cross-border shopping in response to sales taxation. While several instructive studies provide estimates of the cross-border shopping effect, we utilize a unique opportunity to evaluate the effect of a large discrete change in sales tax policy. Using county level data on food sales and sales tax rates for West Virginia over the 1988-1991 period we esti...

Junk food consumption is associated with rising obesity rates in the United States. While a "junk food" specific tax is a potential public health intervention, a majority of states already impose sales taxes on certain junk food and soft drinks. This study reviews the state sales tax variance for soft drinks and selected snack products sold through grocery stores and vending machines as of Janu...

The extant literature on fat taxes and thin subsidies tends to focus on the overall e ectiveness of such scal instruments in altering diets and improving health. However, little is known about the welfare impacts of scal food policies on society. This paper lls a gap in the literature by assessing the distributional impacts and welfare e ects resulting from a tax-subsidy combination on di erent...

Oliver T Mytton, academic clinical fellow, Dushy Clarke, researcher, Mike Rayner, director Author Affiliations 1British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group, Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK Correspondence to: O T Mytton [email protected] Accepted 2 April 2012 An increasing number of countries are introducing taxes on unhealthy food and ...

 Over-consumption of foods and beverages high in fat, sugar and salt content, associated with heightened risk for obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), is one of the biggest public health problems facing the UK.  It is not only a worry for people who suffer from limiting conditions such as diabetes, types of cancers, cardiovascular and coronary heart disease, but it is al...

The recent review of taxation in Australia - the Henry tax review - has recommended that the federal government increase the taxes already levied on tobacco and alcohol. Tobacco and alcohol taxes are put forward as the best way of reducing the social harms caused by the use and misuse of these substances. Junk foods have the same pattern of misuse and the same social costs as tobacco and alcoho...