A recent story about the owner of several Subway sandwich shops being surprised that he owed Maine’s 5 percent use tax on the free meals he provided employees was a good reminder for the Legislature to examine this and other niggling taxes that bring in small amounts of money but regularly cause headaches for taxpayers.

The tax on employee meals has been around for a half century, but news accounts say restaurant owners are regularly taken aback to discover they owe for the free or reduced-priced meals. According to Maine Revenue Service, total revenues from this tax is less than $1 million annually.

There’s no point arguing whether the meals are more or less worthy of being taxed compared with other goods in a company’s inventory. The point of reviewing this tax and others would be to re-examine the balance of simplification and fairness in the state tax code. It is, in part, to avoid the reality and the perception that Maine taxes everything it possibly can.

One reason for the tax on these meals is to avoid the problem of employees receiving untaxed compensation. Maine probably could afford to recognize the tradition in many restaurants of providing food, at relatively low cost, if any, to itself and know that this does not violate any significant philosophy of revenue collection.

Even if it did, Maine does better to bend its malleable tax beliefs when not doing so garners it nothing but bad press and resident head-shaking. Just think how under such circumstances the state would save significantly by not having to spend promotional dollars to counteract the bad impression left by news of the tax.

Legislators regularly attempt to reform Maine’s tax system and regularly fail because their proposals include sufficient tax increases to irritate a decisive number of constituents. But a more modest review of small corrections designed to make clear and fair what ought to be taxed stands a much better chance of success. Perhaps they could debate it over lunch.