5 ms·
Seems like a no brainer. Can they tackle sales tax next?
by legitster 2y ago
Seems like a no brainer. Can they tackle sales tax next?
- itake 2y agoand service fees at restaurants. The price on the menu in Seattle or SF is ~25% lower than what the product actually costs.
- hamandcheese 2y agoCalifornia was set to ban that, until Scott Weiner carved out an exception for restaurants.
- sedatk 2y agoHis name sounds exactly like someone who'd sabotage a public benefit.
- hnburnsy 2y agoYeah, I love that healthcare surcharge at SFO restaurants.
- itake 2y agoHealthcare surcharge: 6% tip: 20% tax: 8.625% = total: 34.625%
- zten 2y agoThe healthcare surcharge is taxable, because it shouldn't exist, it should just be a 6% increase in the menu price.
- trustinmenowpls 2y agowhat is a healthcare surcharge?
- zten 2y agoSF has something called Healthy SF where employers have to offer health insurance plans, or pay into a city-managed health account. I think the last time I looked, for a lot of businesses, it's basically a $2.25/hr raise for your employees. edit: The best part is, if your employees don't use the money (maybe they don't know about it or don't have any health care expenses), the business can eventually reclaim it... The restaurant association balked at this, and encouraged businesses to list out the increased cost as a separate line item on the receipt, instead of raising menu prices, basically raising a middle finger and saying "see what you idiots voted for, now you pay for it!" I don't know why I'd be mad that I have to pay for someone's health care. That's sort of how it works, doesn't it? Since then, it has taken on a life of its own. Some places call it a health care surcharge. Others call it a SF surcharge, or a cost adjustment, or inflation fee. It's not a tax, it's not a service charge, it's not anything but whatever arbitrary number the business wants to charge without raising their menu price. And thus, it's taxable.
- coldpie 2y agoMinnesota banned these this year! It goes into effect Jan 1st. https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/05/20/governor-signs-junk-fee-ban-into-law/ https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/05/20/governor-signs-junk...
- kstrauser 2y agoCount the service charge toward what you would’ve tipped. Wait staff reading this: bosses at restaurants like this are stealing from you if that doesn’t go straight to you. I tip very well, but I’m not tipping twice. And yes, if it’s a “service charge”, that’s the same as saying “tip” from the customer’s perspective.
- aziaziazi 2y agoWould boycott get a chance? The honest restaurants bragging "NO FEES" would gather more customers and the others follow. Wondering, is there already US places that works without tips like in most other places ? (Owner pays a decent salary to its employees, include that in all products they sell and don’t expect tips)
- FateOfNations 2y agoVarious restaurant operators have experimented with what you described but haven't succeeded. The big issue is that servers hate it specifically because owners use the additional revenue to "pay a decent salary to their employees. " This generally includes all the employees, not just the formerly tipped ones. The kitchen staff ends up getting a significant pay bump, and servers get what amounts to a cut in their take-home pay. At the higher end, the labor market for waitstaff is competitive, and restaurant operators who have experimented with this have had trouble keeping server positions filled (with the opposite effect in the kitchen).
- aziaziazi 2y agoThanks. Perhaps what’s lacking is a legal decent minimum wage then.
- caseyohara 2y agoNot likely; sales tax is extremely complicated in the US. There are 13,000 sales tax jurisdictions, and many of them have different and incompatible rules for things like sales tax nexus.
- cyberax 2y agoA business already has to take care of the sales tax. So they can just show it on the price tag.
- bluGill 2y agoNo they cannot. Taxes are not uniform. Walmart probably won't deal with this, but in many states business (read farmers) do not pay sales tax on some items (read likely to be used on a farm) and so stores that want to sell to business will have the ability to verify you are a business to give that discount. It is worse for online where until you log in they have no clue what taxes will apply. If you are buying a gift for someone in a different area I don't know what tax rules apply but there is good odds they won't know until you get to the shipping information what the real taxes are.
- cyberax 2y agoIf you sell a widget in a store, you MUST be able to compute the sales tax. Otherwise, you can't sell it. And if you can do that, then you might as well print it on the price tag (along with pre-tax price if you want). No buts. Ditto for online, after you get the customer's ZIP code.
- stonemetal12 2y agoMove to Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon. No sales tax.
- m463 2y agomost states have some trick. I think you have to look at it wholistically: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Median_household_income_and_taxes.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Median_h...
- insane_dreamer 2y agoNot a trick, just they get their income from other sources / taxes. But we're specifically talking about knowing the final price you will pay, in advance, which requires knowing the sales tax.
- runako 2y agonitpick: "holistically"
- m463 2y agoLol, I didn't even think when I wrote it that way. That said, it seems to be in the dictionary as an alternate spelling of holistic. I guess the english language lets this stuff happen a lot, but not alot. I definitely did it by accident (not "on accident"!)
- insane_dreamer 2y agoThat's a state matter so not really within the FTC's jurisdiction I think. Luckily some states (OR, AK, others) don't have a sales tax.