I don’t know how I missed this, but there’s a new bit of taxation going on here in Taxachusetts, local based restaurant and hotel taxes.
Over the summer the state raised the sales tax to 6.25%. This is kind of an odd amount really. Let’s face it, if I spend 1.00, I can’t pay 6.25 cents on that, so does it round up and cheat the consumer (where’s the extra go?) or do you round down and have the business owner risk under reporting taxes? Well, it looks like they may have had a reason.
The state offered towns the opportunity to implement a local .75% hotel and restaurant tax of their own, rounding it out to 7%.
Annoying for sure, but it gets worse. Not all the towns took the state up on the offer.
This means if I eat in my own town of Auburn, or the next town over, Worcester, I get hit with the extra tax. However if I go over to Millbury (the other side of Auburn), there’s no extra tax. This is slightly unfortunate really; often we go to the Applebees here in town because it’s rarely busy. Honestly I think it’s a front for something worse because this place is dead most of the time. But, with two kids in tow, you deal with the questionable food on those nights you just can’t cook dinner. The service is fine, by the way. However, given the economy, we may be more likely to go to the Applebees in Millbury now because it saves us a few cents. Distance wise it’s about the same either way, so there’s really no gas savings.
Perhaps some of the Millbury restaurant owners should send the town selectmen in Auburn and the mayor in Worcester a thank you note and a coupon to say thanks for the extra business.
Just as a random musing, I looked it up and it looks like the state actually took into account the odd quarter point figures. Have a look.
Here’s the list of municipalities that have adopted the higher meals tax, or as I like to think of it, the list of towns to eat in instead. Interestingly only 32 greedy communities out of 351 listed took the state up on it’s offer.
Tags: City of Worcester, Millbury, state, taxes, Town of Auburn