Meals Tax: Don't Be Mislead

I watched thesponsored by the Plymouth Area League of Women Voters, with Chris Fava supporting the opposition, and Mike Hanlon defending the original article.

I love watching debates, because you have two people with opposing views armed with facts fighting for what they believe is right, and it can get pretty heated and emotional.

I know in the heat of the moment people who are in a debate can misspeak, accidentally distort a fact, misquote, or simply make a mistake. It happens. We are only human. Even George Bush and Barack Obama have made more than a few slips on the floor of a debate.

But when the main point of your argument, a point that you stress over a dozen times during the debate, is utterly false and made up, then we have a problem.

Maybe Chris Fava really believed the falsehood he was selling. Or maybe it sounded enough like truth he was hoping people would believe it. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I hope maybe he just didn't bother to fact check.

But the truth is, during the debate, Chris Fava stated at least a dozen times that restaurants would absorb the cost of the meals tax, and it would hurt them by cutting into their profits.

This is not only untrue, it's not possible.

When the state orders a business to collect a tax, such as the meals tax or a sales tax, the business cannot "absorb" the tax as Fava implies.

What does this mean?

Simply, the restaurant must add the tax to the customer's check after the subtotal, and the restaurant must collect the tax from the customer. The restaurant, as a middle man, takes this tax and then pays it to the state. If the Plymouth Meals Tax is passed, the state is then required to pass the tax back to Plymouth.

The restaurants must collect the tax, and must pass it on. Other than re-setting the tax rate on their registers, there is no cost or extra work for the restaurant to worry about.

So, if a restaurant owner decides they don't want to add the 0.75 percent to the check, and they pay it themselves by absorbing it, they will be in some pretty serious hot water with the state auditors.

In any case, I'm sure Mr. Fava simply didn't realize the main point of his argument wasn't really true, but I do want you, however you decide to vote, to base your vote on the facts, and not be mislead by untruths.