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<p>In this May 17, 2012 photo, Richard Lowe poses atop a pile of mulch in Morrisville, Vt. Nursery owners and landscapers around Vermont have been getting big bills from the state recently for unpaid sales taxes on products like bark mulch and soil additives that many thought had an agricultural exemption from the 6 percent levy. Some are complaining that they were caught unaware of a change in the tax code made six years ago. ?You don?t just change the taxes and laws and not tell somebody,? said Lowe, owner of Green Mountain Landscaping in Morrisville, who is fighting $18,000 in bills for back taxes. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)</p>

<p>In this May 17, 2012 photo, Richard Lowe poses atop a pile of mulch in Morrisville, Vt. Nursery owners and landscapers around Vermont have been getting big bills from the state recently for unpaid sales taxes on products like bark mulch and soil additives that many thought had an agricultural exemption from the 6 percent levy. Some are complaining that they were caught unaware of a change in the tax code made six years ago. ?You don?t just change the taxes and laws …

May 29, 2012

Stories this photo appears in:

Some states asking the tax man to get tougher
May 29, 2012 9:15 p.m.

Some states asking the tax man to get tougher

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Dentist Frank Illuzzi was stunned when Vermont tax collectors began demanding a 6 percent sales tax on the value of toothbrushes and floss he hands out to patients. Senior care facility operator Jay Grimes was similarly surprised to get a $350,000 bill slapping a 9 percent restaurant tax on the meals served to residents in the dining room. Landscaper Richard "Buckwheat" Lowe got $18,000 in bills taxing him for the first time ever on the mulch he sells.