New York state officials draw some awfully fine distinctions about what products are subject to sales tax and what products are exempt, my former New York Sun colleague Jacob Gershman reports in the Wall Street Journal:
the 4% sales tax does apply to graphic novels. The reason is that the state classifies them as books, not periodicals, like magazines, which are exempt. For a comic book to escape the clutches of the tax collector, it must be published at "stated intervals at least four times a year"
And:
Months before Halloween, the state opined on haunted houses and whether tickets sales are subject to sales tax.
"While an admission charge for just a dramatic or musical performance is not subject to sales tax," the tax department stated, a haunted house is not exempted and is taxed as a place of amusement. That's the case even if the haunted house also provides musical entertainment.
