Maine Newspapers, Periodicals Slapped with Sales Tax

By: Steve Mistler and Eric Russell | The Portland Press Herald

If you haven’t already bought that big-screen TV for football season or relaxed in a bed-and-breakfast in Camden or gone out to that fancy restaurant you’ve been dying to try, you’re going to pay a price for waiting.

State taxes on all of those things just went up, effective today.

Maine’s general sales tax increased from 5 percent to 5.5 percent. The tax on meals and lodging went from 7 percent to 8 percent. And periodicals, including newspapers, became taxable for the first time, which means a paper or a magazine will cost 5.5 percent more.