Probably just entered wrong in the system. Of course knowing the way corporates operated it might be intended. I believe they get to keep so much under a certain total before they have to send it back.

In DC the sale tax is 10% for eating out...stupid legal tax laws.

MY GOD

Some places had a higher tax of take-out food, and since the receipt actually says Take-Out total, that might be why the higher tax rate.

Another idea is maybe some sort of local tax.

But of course the original poster seems to know what he is talking about, of course the cashier won't know what is going on - probable best to go to the government agency in the area and start there.

I always wonder about companies charging sales tax online, even though they probably don't pay the tax to my state of residence... Should be illegal and have massive fines for this stuff, since it is beneficial for the company to do this... some fraud type statute.

Three words: Small Claims Court, get your $100 and call it a day.

SOOOO many places overcharge sales tax. I used to work at one. They charged 10%....sales tax was only 6%. They did it for the extra money.

Report Florida tax law violations: [dor.myflorida.com]

@kcvaliant: If it were intended then they are in some serious dip.

Wouldn't that be mucho illegal? Since the company would be pocketing the extra but "pretending" it was state tax - as in goes to the state? Regardless, isn't this stealing in essence?

I live in Ohio where they like to over complicate the sales tax issue. I'm on a county line and retail sales tax is 6.5% in my county, 6.75% next door, drive south about 30 minutes and it's 5.75% in that county. Then they passed a bus levy, so depending on what you buy, it's now 7% in one county but still 6.5% in mine. I've given up trying to figure it out and just shop online.

The only plus is the no tax on food thing, a $5 footlong is indeed only $5.

Is there a meals tax in South Beach? Massachusetts just allowed towns to pass a small meals tax on top of the 6.25% sales tax. For example, in Saugus, MA it's an additional .75%, so I'd pay 7% tax on restaurants there. It's not separated out as a different line item on the bill.

I found this article but it's dated and I can't figure out if it still applies.

@jmhart: Wait, how is small claims going to lead to $100? He was overcharted by $0.10. Is there some kind of Florida law that allows for 1000 times damages for negligent point of sale installation?

@secret_curse: err, overcharged...

Sometimes new developments have extra sales tax to compensate the developer. For example, there is a best buy near here that charges and extra 1% sales tax that is supposed to compensate the developer for the infrastructure they installed in the area.

@chiieddy: I had the same thing happen to me...
I was not aware that the meal tax was higher in MA after they raised the sales tax...
I noticed it and contacted delivery service which passed this link on to me...
[www.bostonherald.com]

@MartaMyrrha: depends, a lot of POS backends just total whatever sales tax they charge each day and corporate forwards it. They may not actually be pocketing it.

But you're probably right about the legality bit.

@rellog321: You would be amazed at the number of places and laws actually requiring this.

My company had 1. ONE. UNO. EIN. Person in another state working for us, and we had to charge sales taxes to the poor people in that state.

All it takes is a distribution center, an order fulfillment company, someone farting from your company in that state for the government to get their greasy hands on it.

Every year this state where there was one person working got over 35k a year in sales tax. Frikin joke.

". Tourist Development Surtax (TDS) on Sales of Food and Beverages in Hotels/Motels

A two percent (2%) Food and Beverage Tax is collected on the sale of all food and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) by restaurants, coffee shops, snack bars, wet bars, night clubs, banquet halls, catering or room services, and any other food and beverage facilities in or on the property of a hotel or motel.

The TDS is collected throughout Miami-Dade County with the exceptions of facilities in the cities of Surfside, Bal Harbour or Miami Beach. TDS receipts are distributed to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau."

source: [www.miamidade.gov]

@teknowaffle:

Collect, not charge. You don't charge sales tax, you collect it on behalf of the government.

There may be additional taxes above sales tax...junk food tax? Entertainment tax? Some cities add that in as well nowadays. If not, they have a helluva lawsuit coming their way.

@larrymac - please put me on your do not call list:

Well, I'm glad we didn't all just jump to conclusions about the evil Subway breaking all kinds of laws...

I'm a Miami local. There is an additional Miami-Beach tax. Honestly, I don't know the details, but it usually shows up as a seperate line under the 7% normal tax.

@Cant_stop_the_rock:

The wording of that is ambiguous; it's not clear if "in or on the property of a hotel or motel" refers only to the phrase "any other food and beverage facilities" or to the whole list. If to the whole list, then it sounds like the Subway may be mistakenly collecting the tax (unless it's at a hotel).

Either way they're not pocketing the money. Excess tax collected gets sent to the state just like all of the other tax money.

@Joewithay: I am still going to complain about our sales tax rate here in NYC, but I suspect you'll scream louder since your rate is 10% and my is "only" 8.875%.
And that rate applies to anything is taxable. So, while buying a pound of roast beef in the deli is not taxable (it's food), ordering a roast beef hero (a/k/a hoagie & sub), you will pay the sales tax on the hero's price since the govts tax the service and the place doesn't break out the charge for the food itself and the service portion (i.e., putting the hero together). Granted, no deli / restaurant would ever break out the prices so we all know that the prices are exclusive of the sales tax (unless otherwise noted on the menu).

@cant_stop_the_rock:

I don't know about that. It entirely depends on how their accountants do the sales tax. I know of several accounting offices in town that treat all bank deposits as income, unless specified otherwise. If they were charging 2 percent more, it'd get picked up as income that way.

@larrymac - please put me on your do not call list: good info, but i'm not sure if i'm reading it right?
that seems to say the TDS applies to restaurants [etc] on the property of hotels and motels but the Subway restaurant at 508 washington ave, miami FL seems to be a freestanding location according to google maps.

@catastrophegirl: well, not 'freestanding' as it is in a strip mall on street view. but it doesn't appear to be attached or on the property of a hotel or motel.

@rellog321: If they collect sales tax and don't pay it to the state, then yes, that's illegal.

Several states now require you to report on your income tax form the value of any online purchases you've made for which you were not charged sales tax.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: The title of that section is "...in Hotels/Motels" so it's relatively clear that it applies to the whole list. It's a "Tourist" tax, so that makes sense, as those are the people who normally visit hotels, whereas everyone eats at restaurants.

There are a number of additional taxes for certain businesses in Florida. When we owned a motel, there was an additional 5% county tax that funded tourism based initiative. I would assume this is probably what happened.

Or you could check out this place just a little further down the street.

Sum Yum Gai
1403 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139

(Insert jokes here)

@GrandizerGo: It was opt-in on a town-by-town basis. Many towns didn't take advantage of it. Saugus was smart to with the Rt 1 strip.

Yeah, I figured it was something like that. Why didn't The Consumerist check this before posting? Or at least question the tax. If you're going to be lazy enough to post the story without doing any homework, at least give it the headline "DID Subway Overcharge on Sales Tax?".
But no, they print it as a fact that they did. One of the most frustrating things about Consumerist is how quickly the take the word of the submitter and post without any effort to check. The fact that they are now owned by CU would make me think they should be trying harder.

@Megleris:
How they treat their bank deposits tells you nothing about how they determine how much they need to send to the state for sales tax. I can tell you how they determine that - they look at their computer and it tells them how much sales tax they collected, and that's what they send.

@Joewithay: Glad to hear we're not the only suckers paying in excess of +10% sales tax. Here in Chicago in the late 90's Daley pushed through a restaurant sales tax increase intended for parks, etc, (beautification) and claimed it would be levied on an area of the city that was heavily trafficked by tourists.

Naturally, it included the entire "downtown" area, where everyone who works in the city eats every goddamned day.

@Blueskylaw: Well, it IS South Beach.

My issue with this whole post is that someone actually ate at that Subway. I've been to the very one and I've literally never seen a dirtier one in my entire life. Maybe I'm just not well traveled enough?

Subway tastes and smells like gym socks. :;barf::

@Joewithay: That's why it helps to like hot dogs. A few hot dogs from the nearby stands, and you're only out a few bucks. I hate the DC restaurant tax.

@cameronl: you might as well of said "wh s ths n cnsmrst?"

BUT, to answer your question; how many bloggers act like reporters and check facts?. Wait, how many reporters check facts?

Sensational headlines and FUD sells more copies...err gets more hits.

The nosey old lady next door does more fact checking than Consumerist, as soon as well all lower our expectations, the site becomes more enjoyable. It's like a treasure hunt, they post half-truths, and misleading sentences then it's up to us to research the truth and post it to get our "attaboy!" reward... but only a few see it because it gets buried by non-fact-checkers lynching away. :-)

@larrymac - please put me on your do not call list: Good job on finding the truth, its always out there, you just gotta eyeball for it. "attaboy!"

@pecan 3.14159265: Indeed. I refuse to eat dinner in the city because of it. I may eat the occasional snack during work if I've got a heavy appetite that day, but that's about it.

Holy crap there's a lot of mayo on that sandwich in the photo.

@teknowaffle: How is that a joke?

@MartaMyrrha: We had a recent situation like this where I live, where we have a huge variety of sales tax rates just within the county (some are city, some are county, some are subject to a special hotel/food tax, some to a special improvement area tax, etc.) so there was some legitimate confusion on the part of merchants ... as long as they're submitting it to the state and not pocketing it, there is virtually no enforcement mechanism to get them to charge the correct sales tax, and individuals who have been overcharged tax have no recourse. (In my state, anyway.)

It was eye-opening, to say the least.

@zentex: Yet, still no retraction from Consumerist.

There is a deli near my office that I frequent. If I buy a soda, they charge me $1.50, including tax and deposit. If I buy a bag of chips (not a taxable item in NYC), they charge me the price on the bag ($.25-$.99). But if I purchase both of those items with a sandwich (taxable), I am charged sales tax on the total purchase. I've mentioned it to the owner several times, he still hasn't retrained his personnel. So now I just make two purchases when I buy my lunch. First the soda and chips, and then the sandwich.

@billy: Does consumerist ever outright retract a story? I thought they just usually post an update.

That is the grossest looking Subway sandwich. Did the customer ask for extra-extra-extra mayo?

@dragonfire81: Some (any) acknowledgment of error would be helpful, especially for those people who don't read past the headline. It's not the first time Phil Villareal let a little thing like facts get in the way of truthful reporting (see his ludicrous story about MLB's copyright notice and his article about Xbox Live and some utter incompetency at trying to buy some games with credits that had nothing to do with Xbox being bad).

It really undermines Consumerist's credibility.

Photos like that should come with a warning and be hidden behind a cut. *blarrghhhh*