Meals Tax:

Local option meals excise: A city or town may impose a local sales tax on restaurant meal sales that come from the city or town by a vendor. The rate is .75% of the vendor's gross receipts from restaurant meal sales. This local excise, which is imposed along with the state sales tax on meals, takes effect on the first day of the calendar quarter following 30 days after acceptance by the city or town on the first day of a later calendar quarter that the city or town may designate.


Massachusetts imposes a sales tax on meals sold by or bought from restaurants or any part of a store. The tax is 6.25% of the sales price of the meal. (Before August 1, 2009, the tax rate was 5%.)

Meal: A meal is any food and/or beverage that has been prepared for immediate human consumption and provided by a restaurant or restaurant part of a store. A meal includes food or beverages sold as "take out" or "to go," whether they're packaged or wrapped or not, and whether they're taken from the premises of the restaurant or not.

Restaurant: A restaurant is any eating or drinking establishment (stationary or mobile, temporary or permanent) that is primarily engaged in the business of selling meals for a price. These include but are not limited to:

Cafes

Cafeterias

Canteen trucks or wagons

Catering businesses

Cocktail lounges and bars

Coffee shops

Diners

Dining rooms, including hotel and motel dining rooms

Ice cream or other food product stands

Lunch counters

Private or social clubs

Salad bars

Snack bars, including theatre snack bars

Street wagons or carts

Taverns

Vending machines or "honor snack trays" that sell snacks or candy with a sales price of $3.50 or more. Honor snack trays are open trays in which employees (in an establishment that normally doesn't sell food) can pay for snacks and candy on the honor system.