Missouri Moves to Tax Yoga Classes

Missouri moves to tax yoga classes [Excerpts]

Yoga teachers in Missouri say they should be exempt from the state sales tax because their students learn a spiritual discipline, not just a physical one.

The 4 percent tax, also imposed on other types of spectator and participatory sport from Cardinals' games to health clubs, was extended to yoga studios Sunday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday.

Missouri is the only state at the moment that taxes yoga. Washington State dropped a yoga tax last year after a massive lobbying effort by practitioners.

(Missouri moves to tax yoga classes, United Press International, Nov. 3, 2009).

[TBC: When Yoga was first introduced into the U.S., it was presented as not being a religion. Subsequently, it was introduced into public schools, an arena which has increasingly been hostile to a perceived religion. Having obtained a foothold, however, some may now feel free to admit the religious base of Yoga.]