Murrysville woman takes Walgreens to court for taxing toilet tissue
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - There are very few things we all need, and toilet paper is one of them. But did you ever look at your store receipt after buying it? One Murrysville woman did and doesn't like what she saw.
"It's something that we all use. We all need to buy, and I have no idea why this is continuing to occur," said consumer advocate Mary Bach. She's got the time, the interest and the receipts.
"That's correct. I do have the receipts," she said.
She sent us her receipts from the Walgreens in Murrysville that show sales tax added to a purchase of toilet tissue.
"Because the toilet tissue was the only thing I bought, it was very easy to see when it came up taxable that the tax was on the toilet tissue, and it should not have been," said Bach.
According to the law in Pennsylvania, toilet tissue is not subject to sales tax. Bach learned it's not just happening at her neighborhood store.
"I've also purchased the same toilet tissue in Wilkinsburg, Greensburg and Penn Hills and even in York, Pennsylvania. And in those Walgreens, I've also been charged sales tax, so I know that it's endemic in their system," said Bach.
Interestingly, it doesn't appear that Walgreens was taxing all brands of toilet tissue. KDKA's Meghan Schiller bought Scott's toilet paper at the Walgreens in Murrysville and was not charged sales tax. Bach purchased the generic Walgreens brand and was taxed.
Bach took Walgreens to court and the magistrate judge in Export sided with her. She says the fix would "take a nanosecond," but it didn't happen yet. She just filed a complaint against the Walgreens in Penn Hills for the same issue, planning to argue in front of the magistrate judge there in March.
"I think it's really that simple and when I find that a store is doing something repetitively when they know that they've got a mistake in their system, and yet they continue to make that same so-called mistake, I question why it's occurring," said Bach.
KDKA-TV reached out to Walgreens and inquired about the sales tax confusion. A spokesperson sent us the following statement: "We are aware of the issue and are updating our systems to no longer charge tax on these items. We expect it to be resolved by tomorrow."
Bach tells KDKA's Meghan Schiller that people can visit the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue's website for the full list of items not subject to sales tax in Pennsylvania.
