Virginia 2027 Regular Session Status: In Committee

HB 703 — RS & UT; food for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products, delayed effective date.

Last action — Continued from last session

  1. ✓
    Introduced
  2. 2
    In Committee
  3. 3
    Passed House of Delegates
  4. 4
    Passed Senate
  5. 5
    To Executive
  6. 6
    Enacted

This bill is in committee in the House of Delegates. Introduced January 13, 2026. It must pass committee before a floor vote.

Next likely step: a committee vote, then a floor vote in the House of Delegates.

Odds of enactment

Low chance

Based on the sponsor, cosponsors, and committee posture, this bill has a low chance of becoming law.

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A statistical estimate from our own model of past outcomes — an insight, not a guarantee. Policymaking is volatile.

Prognosis

Stalled 24% · moderate confidence

  • In Committee

    Current position in the legislative process.

  • 32 sponsors

    1 primary, 31 co-sponsors signed on.

Based on stage, sponsorship breadth, committee status, recorded votes, and cross-state momentum — a description of the observable signals, not a prediction.

In plain language

The bill eliminates local sales tax on food and hygiene products while compensating affected localities.

This legislation removes the local sales tax on food and essential hygiene items. It also mandates monthly compensation to cities and counties for the revenue lost due to this tax elimination, starting in 2027.

What this means for you
  • Families: This may help lower the overall cost of essential items for your household when the tax is removed.
  • Consumers: You will no longer pay local sales tax on food and hygiene products starting in 2027.

Summary

Sales and use tax; food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Eliminates the remaining one percent local sales and use tax that is imposed on food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Under current law, no other sales and use tax is applied to such products. The bill requires an equivalent amount of revenue to be distributed to cities and counties on a monthly basis in compensation for the lost tax revenue. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027.

Bill Text

Action History

  1. Continued from last session

  2. Continued to next session in Finance (Voice Vote)

  3. Subcommittee recommends continuing to (Voice Vote)

  4. Assigned HFIN sub: Subcommittee #3

  5. Fiscal Impact statement From TAX (1/23/2026 2:04 pm)

  6. Referred to Committee on Finance

  7. Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26103660D

Sponsors

Sponsorship breakdown

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1 sponsors · 31 co-sponsors · 116 not signed on

Sponsors (1)

Co-sponsors (31)

Not signed on (116)

116 members have not signed on to this bill.

Show all 116 →

"Not signed on" means a member has not sponsored or co-sponsored this bill — it does not imply opposition. Members flagged Voted No have a recorded No vote on this bill.

Whip count is in markup. Polling the chamber and every recorded vote this session. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Calling the roll · Tallying · Engrossing

Subjects

taxation agriculture
Cross-referencing the record. Reading this bill against every other bill in the corpus by meaning, not keywords. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Matching · Ranking · Engrossing

Frequently asked questions

What does HB 703 do?
Sales and use tax; food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Eliminates the remaining one percent local sales and use tax that is imposed on food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Under current law, no other sales and use tax is applied to such products. The bill requires an equivalent amount of revenue to be distributed to cities and counties on a monthly basis in compensation for the lost tax revenue. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027.
Who sponsors HB 703?
HB 703 is sponsored by Eric R. Zehr, Scott A. Wyatt, Thomas C. Wright, Jr., Tony O. Wilt, Wren M. Williams, Bill Wiley, Madison Whittle, Michael J. Webert, R. Lee Ware, Wendell S. Walker, H. Otto Wachsmann, Jr., Chris S. Runion, Eric Phillips, Justin Pence, Israel D. O'Quinn, Delores Oates, James W. Morefield, Joseph P. McNamara, James A. "Jay" Leftwich, Terry G. Kilgore, M. Keith Hodges, Karen Hamilton, Timothy P. Griffin, Thomas A. Garrett, Jr., Will Davis, Mitchell Cornett, Mike A. Cherry, Jason S. Ballard, Anne Ferrell Tata, Hyland F. "Buddy" Fowler, Jr., Hillary Pugh Kent, and Ellen H. McLaughlin.
What is the current status of HB 703?
This bill is in committee in the House of Delegates. Introduced January 13, 2026. It must pass committee before a floor vote.
Where can I track HB 703?
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