Bills would create tax holidays for construction, restaurants

Legislation soon to be introduced in the state Senate would create a sales tax holiday for restaurant supplies and construction materials.

State Sens. Ryan P. Aument (R-Lancaster County) and John T. Yudichak (I-Carbon and Luzerne counties) will introduce the sales holidays as two bills.

The first bill would implement a sales tax holiday for restaurant supplies, including food ingredients, food, prepared food, and accessories and equipment.

In Pennsylvania, the full-service restaurant industry lost 30,000 jobs between December 2019 and December 2021, according to the Independent Fiscal Office.

The second would implement a sales tax holiday for construction materials, including all fixtures, machinery, and equipment.

In Pennsylvania, 120,543 construction companies were considered small businesses in 2021, according to the U.S Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, the majority with fewer than 20 employees.

The goal of the bills is to provide a financial incentive as the economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic for doing business in the state.

“A targeted sales tax holiday for restaurant supplies and building materials will help inject new life into industries that have struggled to overcome high inflation rates, a national workforce shortage, and – among other issues – supply chain issues over the past few years,” the lawmakers said.