R.I. restaurant collections rise 4.8% in Feb., hotel collections fall

TAX COLLECTIONS from Rhode Island restaurants rose 4.8 percent in February compared with the same month a year earlier, while hotel collections fell 2.8 percent, the R.I. Department of Revenue reported Tuesday. / COURTESY COOK & BROWN PUBLIC HOUSE
TAX COLLECTIONS from Rhode Island restaurants rose 4.8 percent in February compared with the same month a year earlier, while hotel collections fell 2.8 percent, the R.I. Department of Revenue reported Tuesday. / COURTESY COOK & BROWN PUBLIC HOUSE

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island hotel tax collections fell 2.8 percent in February to $126,603 compared with $130,278 in February 2013, the R.I. Department of Revenue reported Friday.
Meal and beverage tax collections, however, rose 4.8 percent to $1.45 million from the $1.38 million reported during the same month last year.
Rhode Island’s meal and beverage tax requires all restaurants in the state to charge a 1 percent local tax on the sale of all meals and beverages. Likewise, the local hotel tax requires hotels to charge a 1 percent tax on all transactions. Tax collections represent a fair gauge of restaurant and hotel activity in Rhode Island during a given period.
Despite the decline in hotel tax collections over the year, both hotel collections and meal and beverage collections registered gains for the fiscal year to date when compared with the previous fiscal year to date. Hotel tax collections increased 5.2 percent to $2.2 million in the two months since January from $2.1 million during the same period in 2013. Likewise, meal and beverage tax collections increased to $14.5 million from $13.8 million in the first two months last year.
Of Rhode Island’s municipalities, Foster saw the largest percentage increase in meal and beverage collections over the year, at 419.4 percent, followed by Glocester at 35.8 percent and Jamestown at 22 percent. The largest decrease was measured in Cranston, at 21.6 percent.
On a month-over-month basis, Rhode Island hotel collections fell 8.4 percent to $126,603 from $138,129 in January, while meal and beverage tax collections dropped 3.4 percent to $1.45 million, compared with $1.5 million in January.

No posts to display