They’re gonna tax our Christmas trees now! UPDATE – White House now delaying non-tax that they weren’t levying in the first place, says spokesman.

Christmas trees need an image boost, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture, so we’re gonna start taxing them!

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

More, via Ann Althouse: do we have to pay the tax if we call them Holiday Trees?

UPDATE – White House denies it’s a tax, says it’s “an industry group deciding to impose fees on itself to fund a promotional campaign, similar to how the dairy producers have created the ‘Got Milk?’ campaign.” Nevertheless, the White House is putting the new non-tax that they aren’t even responsible for on hold.