Hindus, yoga teachers question US sales tax

Yoga practitioners are criticizing a Missouri sales tax that applies to yoga classes, claiming they should be exempt because the lessons include spiritual elements.

A Missouri Department of Revenue official sent letters to 140 yoga and Pilates centers on Oct. 13, telling them they must collect sales tax on the fees for their classes and services and pay them beginning Nov. 1, if they weren't already.

The sales tax on money paid to places of "amusement, entertainment or recreation, games and athletic events" isn't new, said revenue spokesman Ted Farnen. He said the letters were sent so the businesses would know that yoga centers offer the same types of fitness services that the Missouri Supreme Court has found taxable.

The state gets about 4 percent sales tax; local communities charge sales tax on top of that, though the amount varies.

But the tax took many Missouri yoga instructors by surprise. They're bristling at the notion that the ancient practice could be construed as recreation or entertainment. "Whoever categorized it doesn't understand what yoga is," said Cathleen Williams, the owner of Urban Breath Yoga in St. Louis.

Several yoga businesses have agreed to collect the sales tax and turn it over to the state, but Williams said it's being done "under protest."

The Spirit of Yoga St. Louis, a group that includes yoga instructors and business owners, is encouraging yoga students to write letters to state politicians, saying they "vehemently disagree" with how yoga is being categorized and they want yoga centers exempt from the sales tax.

Farnen said he didn't have a figure for how much Missouri might collect from the sales tax applied to yoga classes. He said besides Missouri, yoga advertisements from Ohio and West Virginia show sales tax is charged there, too.

An Ohio Department of Revenue spokesman, Mike McKinney, explained Ohio taxes gym, recreation and sports club memberships, not the classes offered. A West Virginia Department of Revenue spokeswoman, Kimberly Osborne, said sales taxes are collected from yoga studios.

Missouri said it will consider religious exemptions to the sales tax on a case-by-case basis. Farnen said the revenue letters were sent to yoga and Pilates businesses, not Hindu temples.

A Hindu chaplain from Reno, Nevada, Rajan Zed, said that taxing yoga classes, which often include physical poses and meditation, could be considered "religious infringement." He said that yoga is one of six systems in Hindu philosophy that traces its roots back thousands of years. Hindu scriptures outline ways to practice the discipline, he noted.

Yoga is often practiced in cultural halls within a temple complex, Zed said. But, he didn't think it should matter if yoga was being practiced in a yoga center or by a temple. "I still think it's a spiritual practice, yoga," he said. "It doesn't matter, the campus where it's held."

Zed is known for efforts to better educate about Hinduism. He made history in 2007 when the Hindu offered the morning prayer that opens each day's U.S. Senate session. Three Christian protesters interrupted, and they were led away by police.