PROVIDENCE – If the volume of local 1 percent meal and beverage tax collections are any indication, the food service business in Rhode Island had a good second half of 2017.
Based on data released by the state Department of Revenue Friday, collections of the meal and beverage tax increased 11.4 percent to $15.2 million through the first six months of fiscal 2018. Collections increased 8.2 percent in December 2017 compared with December 2016 to $2 million. The tax is re-distributed in full to the municipalities in which they were collected.
Department of Revenue Director Mark A. Furcolo, in prepared remarks, said that “local 1 percent meal and beverage tax collections have performed very well in fiscal 2018, providing revenue increases to all but five municipalities, with strong nominal increases in Providence, up $487,199 on a fiscal year-to-date basis; Newport, up $189,924; and Warwick, up $152,343.”
The 11.4 percent year-to-date growth in fiscal 2018 year to date is much greater than the 1.6 percent growth that was seen in the same fiscal 2017 period over the first six months of fiscal 2016.
The three municipalities with the largest amount of the tax collected through the first half of fiscal 2018 are:
- Providence, $3.1 million, a year-over-year increase of 18.4 percent
- Newport, $1.6 million, +13.7 percent
- Warwick, $1.6 million, +10.8 percent
