The Massachusetts meals tax and Boston’s local option, for restaurant owners

Key takeaways

• The Massachusetts meals tax is 6.25% of the sales price of a meal, according to the Department of Revenue (DOR) guide updated June 26, 2026.
• Boston adds the 0.75% local option meals excise, in effect in the city since October 1, 2009, so a restaurant check in Boston carries 7% in total.
• The Division of Local Services counted 272 Massachusetts cities and towns with the local meals excise as of November 13, 2026, including Brookline and Cambridge.
• Meals tax returns are monthly and are due to DOR through MassTaxConnect on or before the 30th day after the month ends, even when no tax is owed.
• Vendors that owed more than $150,000 in meals tax in the prior calendar year must also send DOR an advance payment by the 25th of each month.
• Tips and service charges stay out of the taxable price only when they are separately stated and paid over to service employees.

If you own or manage a restaurant, cafe, bar, bakery, food truck or catering business in Boston, you collect two taxes on every taxable check. The Massachusetts meals tax is the state sales tax as it applies to meals: 6.25% of the sales price, set by state law and collected by the Department of Revenue. The local option meals excise is a second 0.75% that a city or town may add, and Boston has added it. Together they come to 7%.

This guide explains what counts as a meal, which sales are exempt, how tips and delivery are treated, how to register and file on MassTaxConnect, when advance payments start, and what records DOR expects you to keep.

What is the Massachusetts meals tax?

The Massachusetts meals tax is a 6.25% state sales tax on meals sold by restaurants and by the restaurant part of a store. The Department of Revenue’s guide to the sales tax on meals defines a meal as food or beverage prepared for immediate human consumption, and that includes take-out and to-go orders whether or not the customer eats on the premises.

A restaurant, in DOR’s definition, is any eating or drinking establishment primarily engaged in selling meals. Cafes, bars, diners, caterers, hotel dining rooms and food court stalls all count. A store is a business that does not primarily sell meals, and most of its food sales are exempt. A restaurant part is the area inside a store that sells meals, such as a supermarket deli counter, and sales there are taxed.

How much is the meals tax in Boston?

The meals tax in Boston is 7% in total: the 6.25% state tax plus the 0.75% local option meals excise. The state sets the first rate; Chapter 64L, Section 2 of the General Laws lets a city or town that accepts the section impose a local tax of 0.75% on restaurant meals sold within its borders. The City of Boston’s fiscal year 2027 local revenue page lists the 0.75% meals excise and budgets $42.8 million from it.

Tax on a restaurant meal in Boston	Rate	Set by
State sales tax on meals	6.25%	Massachusetts (collected by DOR)
Local option meals excise	0.75%	City of Boston, under M.G.L. c. 64L, s. 2
Total charged to the customer	7%	State and city combined

On a $40.00 dinner check in Boston, the state tax is $2.50 and the local excise is $0.30, for $2.80 in tax. Nothing goes to Boston City Hall. Vendors pay the local excise to DOR along with the state tax, and the state treasurer distributes the money to each accepting city or town at least quarterly.

The rate depends on where the meal is sold, so a second location outside Boston may charge a different total. The Division of Local Services report on local option adoption listed 272 municipalities with the meals excise on November 13, 2026. Boston, Brookline and Cambridge each show 0.75% effective October 1, 2009.

Which food and drink sales are taxable as meals?

Taxable meals are food and beverages, alcohol included, that need no significant further preparation before someone eats or drinks them. DOR gives the example of lasagna: a lasagna dinner served by a restaurant is taxable, and a frozen lasagna sold to be heated at home is not.

DOR’s guide lists these sales as taxable:

• Poured or fountain beverages, and alcoholic drinks served by a bar or restaurant.
• Sandwiches, hot foods, heated entrees, combination plates and quick items such as pizza slices, hot dogs and heated soup, including when a store sells them.
• Salads sold by weight from a supermarket salad bar.
• Baked goods sold by a bakery that also sells snack bar or coffee shop items, unless the customer buys six or more for take-out.
• Vending machine and honor snack tray sales, if any single item is priced at $3.50 or more.

DOR applies the tax only to the amount actually charged, so the free meal on a “2 for 1” coupon is left out.

Which sales are exempt from the meals tax?

Sales exempt from the meals tax are mostly grocery-type items that a restaurant or store sells for take-out in the way a food store would. DOR’s guide names the following:

• Food sold by weight or count, or in unopened original packages, when retail food stores commonly sell it that way.
• A loaf of bread, a quart of milk, and prepackaged ice cream in pint, quart or half-gallon sizes.
• Take-out beverages in unopened original containers of at least 26 fluid ounces.
• Baked goods in units of six or more for take-out, and prepackaged snacks sold by stores.
• Frozen entrees, unheated deli meats and cheeses, and party platters sold by stores (paper plates and other non-food items in a platter are taxed).

If a bakery with a coffee counter separates its restaurant part from the rest of the shop, so that beverages and meals are not bought in the same area as the baked goods, DOR treats the baked goods as non-taxable store sales.

Some buyers are exempt regardless of what they order. A 501(c)(3) organization can buy meals tax-free if it gives you Form ST-5, the Sales Tax Exempt Purchaser Certificate, with a copy of its Form ST-2 exemption certificate, and you keep both. Purchases by the United States or Massachusetts government are exempt.

Are tips, service charges and delivery fees taxed?

Tips and service charges are not taxed when they are separately stated on the bill and you distribute them to service employees, according to DOR. If any part of a service charge is kept by the business, DOR counts the charge as part of the taxable sales price.

Delivery through a third party follows its own rule. A restaurant meal delivery company is a vendor that buys meals from restaurants to resell and deliver. That company collects the 6.25% state tax and any local excise on the retail price, leaving out separately stated delivery charges and tips, and it gives the restaurant a Form ST-4 resale certificate. A restaurant that accepts Form ST-4 does not collect tax on those sales.

How do you register and file meals tax returns?

You register for the meals tax and file returns with the Department of Revenue through MassTaxConnect, DOR’s online filing system. Anyone who sells taxable meals is a meals tax vendor and must register. When a liquor license holder operates a restaurant, DOR presumes the license holder is the vendor even if a concessionaire serves the food.

DOR’s filing routine in Massachusetts has four parts:

1. Register each location on MassTaxConnect. DOR issues a Meals, Food and Beverages Registration Certificate for each one, and you display it where customers can see it.
2. File a return on MassTaxConnect every month. The return and payment are due on or before the 30th day after the month the return covers.
3. Report cash sales on Line 1a and credit sales on Line 1b. Gift card and SNAP sales count as cash.
4. File with DOR even for a month with no tax due, entering 0.

DOR requires the tax to be separately stated on invoices, bills and contracts, except bills solely for alcoholic beverages.

Who has to make meals tax advance payments?

Meals tax advance payments are required from vendors whose cumulative meals tax liability in the prior calendar year was more than $150,000. DOR’s advance payment requirements page, updated April 22, 2026, says all returns of the same tax type filed by one vendor are combined to test the threshold, so a group with several locations can cross it together.

The advance payment is due to DOR on or before the 25th of the month and must cover either the tax on sales from the 1st through the 21st, or at least 80% of the prior month’s liability. The balance goes in with the return on the 30th day after the month ends. A 5% penalty applies to the underpaid amount if you pay less than the advance payment due or less than 70% of the month’s total liability.

What records and penalties apply to meals tax vendors?

Meals tax vendors must keep complete records of all gross receipts, taxable or not, for at least three years from the later of the return’s filing date or due date. DOR lists register tapes, bar checks, dining room checks, a daily receipts book and copies of returns. Dining room checks are serially numbered and carry the wording “6.25 Percent Mass. Sales Tax on Meals.”

Late returns and late payments each cost 1% of the unpaid amount per month, up to 25%, plus interest at the federal short-term rate plus 4%. DOR can go back six years when a return understates the tax by more than 25%. Sales suppression software carries a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for a first offense.

What should you recheck before you act?

The figures below were checked on November 13, 2026.

• State rate of 6.25%, the $3.50 vending threshold and the taxable and exempt lists: DOR’s guide to the sales tax on meals (updated June 26, 2026).
• Local excise of 0.75% and whether your city or town has adopted it: M.G.L. c. 64L, s. 2 and the Division of Local Services adoption report. A state proposal, the Municipal Empowerment Act, would let municipalities raise the local rate to 1%. The DOR local option excise page still showed 0.75% on the date checked.
• Advance payment threshold of $150,000, which DOR sets annually: the advance payment requirements page.
• Return due dates, penalty rates and record rules: DOR’s meals guide and your MassTaxConnect account.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules and fees change; confirm the current requirements with the agency named before you file or pay.

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