Meals tax collection holding up

Eleven months into the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, it is apparent that consumers are buying less in retail stores and have slowed down their purchase of new cars, but they are still eating out.

Year-to-date revenue collection numbers DOR released this week show that while collections of regular sales tax (retail items) are down $138 million or 5.1 percent from a year ago, and tax collections from the sale of motor vehicles are down $63 million or 13.7 percent from a year ago, meals tax collections of $573 million are just $2 million less than a year ago, down just 0.4 percent.

There has been a lot said about how restaurants have had to revise their menus and pricing to keep customers coming. They are apparently meeting with some success in this tough economy, because the numbers in this case don't lie. The restaurant business appears to be holding up.

To take a look at the complete revenue report for May as well as the year-to-date numbers click here. And feel free to comment with your own observation.

Comments

[Edward Peters]

Hi John, please check out our Guide to Meals tax.. it does have info on tax-exempt entities so you can see if your group qualifies.. here's the link..

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=dorterminal&L=6&L0=Home&L1=Individuals+and+Families&L2=Personal+Income+Tax&L3=Forms+%26+Publications&L4=Publications&L5=Publications+Index&sid=Ador&b=terminalcontent&f=dor_publ_meals&csid=Ador#nontaxable

[John Diggins]

Regarding the meals tax, I am a treasurer of a local american Legion post and we pay the meals tax on all liquor sales. We heard there is an exemption from the tax in the case of sales in the "Member only" lounge since the Post is a federally tax exempt organization. We heard there was a circular explaing this exemption. Any ideas? Thanks John