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Miami Drink Tax?


dougl61

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15 minutes ago, dougl61 said:

I recently sailed another cruise line out of Miami and even with a drink package, they charged tax on drinks to onboard account. This is the first time this has ever happened and never on RCCL.

Is this something new?

would the other cruise line you are referring to happen to be NCL? if so what they do is ridiculous and I don't know how they get away with it.. There is no law that says they have to charge tax.. Not only that the sales tax in Miami doesn't even match what they charge.. They basically just wanted a way to get extra money out of people. Its quite annoying.. If your not talking about NCL sorry for the rant lol... But I have been on 45 Royal cruises and they never do this so don't worry about it.. 

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I recently saw a Youtube video showing some drink receipts on Majesty OTS out of Fort Lauderdale.  The drinks were while in port and they had tax on them.  It corresponded to 6% which is sales tax in FL.  So, it appears there is something, at least about being in FL, that has caused RCI to charge sales tax on drinks.  And, it was 6% of the drink+"surcharge".  Of course the "surcharge" is the 18% gratuity.  It doesn't seem fair to pay sales tax on the gratuity but if you call it a surcharge it's apparently taxable.

Edit: BTW, the video was from June of this year.

Mike

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1 hour ago, AGSLC5 said:

would the other cruise line you are referring to happen to be NCL? if so what they do is ridiculous and I don't know how they get away with it.. There is no law that says they have to charge tax.. Not only that the sales tax in Miami doesn't even match what they charge.. They basically just wanted a way to get extra money out of people. Its quite annoying.. If your not talking about NCL sorry for the rant lol... But I have been on 45 Royal cruises and they never do this so don't worry about it.. 

Thanks for confirmation that I shouldn't sail NCL, didn't want to anyways

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1 hour ago, MicroBeta said:

I recently saw a Youtube video showing some drink receipts on Majesty OTS out of Fort Lauderdale.  The drinks were while in port and they had tax on them.  It corresponded to 6% which is sales tax in FL.  So, it appears there is something, at least about being in FL, that has caused RCI to charge sales tax on drinks.  And, it was 6% of the drink+"surcharge".  Of course the "surcharge" is the 18% gratuity.  It doesn't seem fair to pay sales tax on the gratuity but if you call it a surcharge it's apparently taxable.

Edit: BTW, the video was from June of this year.

Mike

actually I live in ft. Lauderdale.. They changed the tax in broward county to 7% back in January.. Is it possible the receipt you saw was for someone who Didn't have a drink package and was just buying a drink? If so that's the reason for the Tax... The OP was referring to if you have a drink package.. If not then I don't know why they charged tax.. 

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3 minutes ago, AGSLC5 said:

actually I live in ft. Lauderdale.. They changed the tax in broward county to 7% back in January.. Is it possible the receipt you saw was for someone who Didn't have a drink package and was just buying a drink? If so that's the reason for the Tax... The OP was referring to if you have a drink package.. If not then I don't know why they charged tax.. 

The couple posting the video did not have the drink package.  So at 7% it's just on the cost of the drink.  It's good to know they weren't charged tax on the "surcharge".  I wonder if that's unique to Florida or does RCI do this for all in port, non-drink package drinks in the US.  And, why wouldn't drink package drinks be subject to tax in port?  I believe it should be that way because I pre-paid for the package but I can see states/municipalities might see it another way.  ?

Mike

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While cruising around France and Spain this summer they had a sign up saying France or Spain, can’t remember which, make them charge a 10% tax on drink sales. We had the deluxe package and paid no extra. This was whole in the confirmed waters, not just in port. Pretty sure it was France but can’t remember for sure. With the cost of drinks just having 3 or 4 a day covered us. Was not a single day we were not ‘winning’!!

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Carnival also charges tax in port, at least they did.  I left from Ft Lauderdale.  I had a series of small charges like $0.74 or $0.69 depending on the drink.  Once we were 12 miles out there was no tax charge.  Approaching Key West Carnival charged the taxes once again.  Once we left later that day the charges went away.

Royal has verbiage in the drink package that says they might charge local taxes but I've never seen them do it, not even in Texas.  The difference in Texas is that they have to serve from a limited drink menu using alcohol from bottles that have the Texas sticker proving they have paid Texas taxes on that bottle.   Once at sea these bottles go away and the regular bar opens up.  A vodka and soda will have to use a bottle that has the Texas tag on it so brand choices may be limited.  An Amstel Light beer from the Diamond Happy Hour menu isn't available in Texas waters but will be once at sea 12 miles out.  

You've actually highlighted a benefit of the Royal pricing approach compared to the competition - taxes tend to be included in the drink package.  Drinks purchased individually without a package will be charged the local taxes.

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