R.I. restaurant tax collections up 1.3% in Nov., hotel collections flat

TAX COLLECTIONS from Rhode Island restaurants increased 1.3 percent in November compared with the same month a year earlier, while hotel collections fell 0.5 percent, the R.I. Department of Revenue reported last week. / COURTESY MERITAGE-WARWICK
TAX COLLECTIONS from Rhode Island restaurants increased 1.3 percent in November compared with the same month a year earlier, while hotel collections fell 0.5 percent, the R.I. Department of Revenue reported last week. / COURTESY MERITAGE-WARWICK

PROVIDENCE – Meal and beverage tax collections from local restaurants totaled $1.61 million in November, an increase of 1.3 percent compared with the $1.59 million collected in November 2012, the R.I. Department of Revenue reported Friday.

Hotel tax collections, meanwhile, fell 0.5 percent year over year, to $208,572 in November from $209,696 during the same period a year earlier.

Of Rhode Island’s municipalities, Charlestown saw the largest percentage increase in meal and beverage collections over the year, at 43.8 percent, followed by Central Falls (31.4 percent), Scituate (25 percent) and North Smithfield (23.2 percent). Foster posted the largest decline, at 35.8 percent.

Scituate led Rhode Island’s cities and towns for largest percentage increase in hotel collections for November, at 143.6 percent, followed by New Shoreham (106.5 percent) and Westerly (42.1 percent), while Johnston saw the largest decrease at 95.1 percent.

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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. Similarly, 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.

On a month-over-month basis, meal and beverage collections statewide decreased 15.8 percent to $1.61 million in November from $1.91 million in October, while hotel collections decreased 34.2 percent to $208,572 from $316,810.

As of November, fiscal year-to-date meal and beverage collections totaled $9.95 million and hotel collections totaled $1.81 million, which represented a 6.8 percent increase and a 6.2 percent increase over the same period in 2012, respectively.

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