Here is how you are charged at Restaurant...!

A simple thing made complicated

We have an uncanny ability to screw simple things and make it complex. Taxes and charges on seemingly simple stuffs like food and drinks are one such thing where customers are taken for granted. Let’s understand few terms that we see on our food bill often but do not understand.

Service charge

This is charged by the restaurant for the services rendered to you. This money goes to the restaurant. The establishments are free to charge any amount as service charges as there are no guidelines provided by the tax authority. The charge varies from 5% to 10%. Few restaurants don’t charge it. This is equivalent to the tips people usually give to waiters. If you are charged service charge in the bill, don’t pay tips as this charge is supposed to be shared among the staff.

Most of us don’t bother about it even when we feel the charges are higher. One reason is that we don’t think anything can be done about it. Secondly, we don’t want to spoil our evening because of this and argue with restaurant manager. However, the ground rule is that if the menu mentions service charges, you have to pay. If it doesn’t, you can question it.

Service tax

Many people confuse service tax with service charges. Service tax is the tax levied by the Government on the services rendered by restaurants. Service tax is same in all states. It is 12.36% on the 40% of the bill. The bill includes your food and drink and the service charge. The restaurant must be air-conditioned for the service tax. The problem here is that most of the customers are taxed at the full bill and not on the 40% of the bill as directed.

To make things simple, service tax should be 40% * 12.36% = 4.94% on the total bill. Hence whenever you see service tax on the total bill exceeding about 5%, you can question it.

VAT (Value Added Tax)

There is another tax called VAT (value added tax) that is state specific. The rates can be as low as 5% and as high as 20% depending upon the states. Moreover, VAT for food items and drink are different. Many restaurants might club food items and drink and charge a flat rate on the total bill. In such cases, it is good to ask for separate bills for food and drinks. This should clearly show the different VAT for both the items.

Example

Let’s see how service charge, tax and VAT work with an example. Suppose you have dined in an AC restaurant and the price of food items is summed to Rs 900. You will be asked to pay service charges (goes to the restaurant) and VAT and service tax (goes to Government)

Items	Amount
Bill of food item	900
Service charge (assuming 6%)	54
Sum Total	954
Service tax to be levied on (40% of sub-total)	381.6
Service tax (at the rate of 12.36%)	47.16576
VAT @ 12.5% of the sub-total	119.25
Total amount to be paid	1120.416

Many times, restaurants charge the highest rate on the total bill. This is general complaint by almost all the customers.
Source from Yahoo!

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