Plastic bags; imposes $0.05 tax beginning 7/1/14 on those used by purchasers to carry certain goods. (HB1381)

Introduced By

Sen. Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) with support from co-patrons Del. Jim Scott (D-Merrifield), and Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Plastic bag tax. Imposes a tax of five cents ($0.05) beginning on July 1, 2014, on plastic bags used by purchasers to carry tangible personal property purchased in grocery stores, convenience stores, or drug stores. Durable, reusable plastic bags and bags used for ice cream, meat, fish, poultry, leftover restaurant food, newspapers, dry cleaning, and prescription drugs are exempt from the tax. Retailers are allowed to retain one cent ($0.01) of the five-cent ($0.05) tax or two cents ($0.02) if the retailer has a customer bag credit program. Failure to collect and remit the tax will result in fines of $250, $500, and $1,000 for the first, second, and third and subsequent offenses, respectively. The revenues from the tax would be deposited into the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
12/12/2012Committee
12/12/2012Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/13 13101393D
12/12/2012Referred to Committee on Finance
01/06/2013Impact statement from TAX (HB1381)
01/14/2013Assigned Finance sub: #1
01/16/2013Subcommittee recommends laying on the table
02/05/2013Left in Finance

Comments

stephen writes:

Sounds like The writer of the bill has exempted all the products that he uses. This bill is truly poorly written. I do agree these bags are a problem, so why not all plastic bags. Also who desides what a Durable bag is? i can picture stores chargeing for bags and then claiming to the government tax collector the bags are Durable.