Michael L. Diamond, and David P. Willis

Asbury Park Press

Some items are taxed and others aren't.

It's the result of lawmakers trying to ease the burden from a regressive system.

But it can leave consumers scratching their heads as they look at their receipts.

It can take some detective work to decipher.

Your bill at the store is $100. The sales tax in your state is 6.875 percent. How much sales tax did you pay?

"I just assume 6 percent or 7 percent sales tax at the end of the order," said Sophia Coleman, who walked out of the Walmart in Neptune last Wednesday with 33 items in her shopping cart for her twin 9-year-olds. "I assume it. Except clothing."

Shoppers shouldn't assume it. New Jersey's sales tax system is downright byzantine if not bizarre. It taxes some items. It keeps its hands off others. And it can leave consumers scratching their heads as they scour their receipts.

Marshmallows are taxed; marshmallow fluff is not. Baby shampoo is taxed; baby wipes are not. Even clothing, famously tax-free in New Jersey, isn't straightforward: soccer cleats are taxed; tennis shoes are not. Under the tax logic, items deemed essential for living — food, clothing, even dry cleaning — are tax-free. So, in New Jersey, the most densely populated and one of the most heavily taxed states in the nation, tennis shoes are apparently an essential item.

Tax Day 2017 — which is April 18 if you want to wait until the very last moment to file with the IRS — is a reminder of myriad taxes we pay but don't want to think about.

And as lawmakers in Washington debate tax reform with ideas that include lowering income taxes and adding a sales tax on imported goods, they may want to avoid looking to the states for simple ideas.

Candy isn't food

After more than two centuries of unfettered taxing powers, the states have found ways to tax almost everything.

But once a state decides to tax something like food or candy, what makes it a food or piece of candy? What's taxed and what's not? For that, 24 states, including New Jersey, turn to the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, a group consisting of state tax administrators and legislators, who along with input from the businesses and retailers, develop the details.

"It makes it a more stable revenue source if people know exactly what they are and what they are not supposed to be taxing," said Craig Johnson, the board's executive director. "The clearer and more transparent you can make the definitions, the easier it is going to be for the retail community to be able to comply."

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The easiest answer, of course, is to have no sales tax at all, but even that comes with complications. Oregon, one of five states without a sales tax, draws the line at recreational marijuana. It taxes weed at 17 percent and gives cities and counties the option to add up to 3 percent more.

And lawmakers there have found other ways to tinker. They are considering offering a $100 tax credit for taxpayers who adopt a dog or cat from a shelter.

In Pennsylvania, consumers pay a "temporary" tax on liquor that was enacted in 1936 to help victims of the Johnstown flood. The town was rebuilt. The tax was made permanent. And even today many consumers aren't aware they are paying it because it is baked into the retail price and not broken out on receipts.

What is it about bagels?

In New York, consumers don't pay taxes on the state's famous bagels — unless they are toasted, buttered or smeared with cream cheese. In that case, they would be like any other sandwich — which are all taxed.

The so-called bagel tax became in an issue in New York several years ago when the owner of 33 Bruegger's locations was hit with back taxes for not imposing sales tax on plain, sliced bagels.

New Jersey bagel shop owners have a similar problem. Bagels aren't taxed. Bagels with butter or cream cheese are taxed. And packaged cream cheese or butter sold separately aren't taxed.

"Our bagels are 95 cents each, there's no tax, but as soon as I put butter or cream cheese or do any kind of work on it, then you have to charge tax," said John Grimes, co-owner of The Hot Bagel Bakery in Ocean. He keeps track with a computerized cash register.

Making an unfair tax system less unfair

The tax system is used by policymakers not only to raise revenue but also to influence behavior. It harkens back to America's Puritan ethic that rewards work and punishes sin and consumption, said Jay Soled, an accounting professor at Rutgers Business School in Newark and New Brunswick.

But sales taxes, in particular, can hurt the poor more than the wealthy, so New Jersey lawmakers have carved out exemptions to give low-income consumers some breathing room.

“Given its regressive nature, there are several exemptions designed to protect low-income taxpayers who need food and clothing," Soled said.

The result? Things can get weird.

Seven things you might not have known about New Jersey's sales tax system:

1. Good oral hygiene is costly. Toothache relievers aren't taxed. But products used to prevent toothaches — toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss — are.

2. Confusion at Six Flags. Amusement parks are taxed; water slides are not, perhaps because facilities used for sporting activities don't have a sales tax. Where does that leave Six Flags Great Adventure and Hurricane Harbor in Jackson? Visitors buying only a day pass to Hurricane Harbor, a water park, don't pay a tax, Six Flags spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher- Fitzgerald said.

3. Read the label. Cranberry juice with 10 percent juice isn’t juice. It’s a soft drink and can be taxed. Only fruit juices with more than 50 percent fruit are exempt.

4. Pumpkin patchwork. Pumpkins as food are exempt from sales tax. But if they're painted, varnished or cut and sold as a decoration, then they're taxable.

5. Gimme a break. Candy is taxable - unless it contains flour. Taxed? Hershey bars, Hershey Kisses, gumdrops. Not taxed? Twix, Milky Ways and Kit Kats, whose advertising jingle, "gimme a break," takes on new meaning.

6. Balloon payment. Hot air or helium balloon rides are not taxable if they are used for transportation - good news for those longing for the return of the Hindenburg. However, balloon rides, when the balloon is tethered to the ground, is considered an amusement ride and is taxed.

7. But really, how often do you get your drapes cleaned? Dry cleaning clothes is exempt from sales tax - but dry cleaning a drape is taxable.

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Shopper Coleman left Walmart with a cart full of items that included twisty balloons and a jump rope, Easter egg die and Peeps, rubber balls and a puzzle map of the United States.

All told, she paid $10.76 in taxes, but asked what items were taxed and what were left alone, she didn't know. The receipt gave no clues.

"It would influence how i would buy if I would have noticed that there was tax on certain items and not on other items," she said. "It's just that I thought everything was taxed."

Contributing: Joseph Spector, USA TODAY Network Albany Bureau; Joel Shannon, York (Pa.) Daily Record ; the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal