I stopped by McDonald’s earlier and ordered two double cheeseburgers to go. When I got home I noticed the receipt had a charge of 16 cents for take-out tax. Not that I’m crying over 16 cents, but does anyone know what exactly a “take-out tax” is?
It’s actually not an additional tax to the sales tax. It is so the employee knows whether to place your food in a bag or on a tray.
It’s also known as “dine-in tax” or “eat-in tax”.
How a restaurant meal is taxed depends entirely upon the local or state tax code. Some places have one tax rate for meals that are eaten in the restaurant, and a different tax rate for take-out food. Some have no tax for take-out food, but only a tax for sit-down meals. And vice-versa.
Contrary to what vandal has said, AFAIK, if the receipt says it’s a “tax,” that’s precisely what it is - it’s not some extra charge that McDonald’s decided to stick on there.
I think vandal was refering to the practice in some places, of noting “eat-in” or “take out” next to the sales tax amount.
For example, the receipt might look like this
2 CHBRGR 2.00
Take out Tax .16
Total 2.16
while a dine in receipt looks like this
2CHBRGR 2.00
Dine in Tax .16
Total 2.16
As vandal said, the “take out” or “dine in” is just a note to the employees. It just happens to be printed on the same line as the tax ( if any) and isn’t additional to any sales tax. It definitely is not resricted to places where take out food is taxed differently from food eaten in the restaurant- NY taxes both the same, and “take out” or “dine in” appears on some receipts.
Yes, that makes sense! As I stop to think about it, I can’t say that I’ve ever actually read a McDonald’s receipt (“Gee, I wonder how my bill ended up being $247.95, when I’m dining alone?”).
As has been said, it varies all over.
Here in B’ham, Alabama, you pay regular sales tax on “togo” items and a “dine in” tax on food you eat in the restaurant.
This has been likened to a “use” tax and I believe is paid into the same fund as the taxes on rental cars and hotel rooms. The reps say that the money goes towards bringing in tourism. Yeah, whatever…
Personally, since I like being an A-hole, I get it to go and take it out of the bag when I get to the table. They will likely name a street after me for this level of civil disobedience.
I don’t ever recall getting a receipt at a MacDonalds. You think that is bad, back in the 80s we had different tax rates for beer in a bottle and beer from the tap. I was an auditor in a hotel with 3 resturants and I would have to go thru between 100-300 check receipts to figure out where on the daily report it went.