Bagel Bamboozle.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Taxing breakfast - Brief article

AT BRUEGGER'S Bagels in Albany, New York, getting your bagel sliced will cost an extra eight cents. That isn't because the owner is a cheap jerk. It's because the use of knives in a bagel shop magically summons the tax man. New York's sales tax doesn't cover whole bagels, but if you want yours sliced with a schmear, the state wants its own cut. Even more puzzling, a nontaxed whole bagel eaten at home becomes taxable if eaten in the store.

Stories like this are likely to become more common as cash-strapped governments looking for ways to raise...