To the dismay of sharp-eyed restaurateurs, any place that accepts credit cards is paying a processing fee not only on a customers’ food and beverage purchases, but also on the sales taxes that state and local governments levy. The establishment is not only required to collect and forward the government’s take but to pay a fee for the obligation.
But the industry appears to be making progress in its longstanding quest to factor sales taxes out of the base amount banks use to determine what a restaurant owes in credit-card processing fees. As this week’s Working Lunch podcast reports, the traction is coming from a shift in focus from federal reform to changing the system at the state level.
Co-hosts Joe Kefauver and Franklin Coley take an in-depth look at what success in banking-fee reform would mean for restaurants facing near-historic inflation.
As in every installment, the principals of the government-affairs consultancy Align Public Strategies also provide an overview of grassroots legislative and regulatory initiatives that could grow into major government issues for the business as a whole.
Download this and every episode from wherever you get your podcasts.
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