#restaurant
Accounting solutions for restaurants and food businesses
Colorado's HB26-1223, signed June 4, 2026, lets qualifying food and drink retailers deduct up to $14,000 of monthly net taxable sales from state sales tax in July, August, November, and December of 2027 and 2028 — worth up to about $3,248 — plus a prepared-food utility exemption or 0.5% credit starting July 1, 2026. Here's who qualifies and how to record it.
Florida's SB 606 (Section 509.214, effective July 1, 2026) requires restaurants to disclose any non-tax "operations charge" on menus, bills, receipts, and contracts in a font size at least as large as menu item descriptions, and to itemize gratuities, operations charges, and sales tax as separate line items on every receipt.
Ireland cut VAT on food, catering, and hairdressing from 13.5% to 9% on July 1, 2026, raised the entrepreneur relief cap to €1.5M, and boosted the R&D credit to 35% — but the minimum wage hike to €14.15 and pension auto-enrolment landed six months earlier. Here's what each change means for small business books.
Eleven U.S. jurisdictions now enforce fair workweek laws requiring 14 days' schedule notice and predictability pay for changes — Starbucks paid $38.9M and Chipotle $20M for violations. Here's what multi-location retail, food service, and hospitality employers must track, what penalties cost per employee, and how to keep the three-year compliance paper trail clean.
A 750ml bottle yields about 5 five-ounce pours, and wine pour cost typically runs 25–30% versus 18–24% for liquor. This guide covers FIFO costing by vintage, by-the-glass yield math, shrinkage as a real COGS line, and why wine bars need separate on-premise and off-premise revenue and COGS accounts from day one.
A barcade runs two businesses with opposite cost structures — liquor at a 20–24% pour cost and games at near-zero marginal cost. How to split the chart of accounts, book token sales as deferred revenue with ASC 606 breakage, expense machines via Section 179 or bonus depreciation, and test whether blended margin beats a plain bar's 10–15% net.
Effective July 1, 2026, Virginia's HB 975 replaces the flat 45% food-to-beverage ratio for mixed beverage licensees with three tiers — no ratio above $48,000 in monthly food sales, 30% between $25,000 and $48,000, and 45% below that — making monthly food-sales tracking a compliance requirement, not just an annual MBAR exercise.
California's SB 68 (the ADDE Act) requires restaurant chains with 20+ locations and at least one California site to disclose the nine major food allergens on every menu format starting July 1, 2026, with civil liability rather than regulatory fines as the primary enforcement risk.
Cat cafes run three distinct revenue streams — lounge admission, food and beverage, and pass-through pet adoption fees — that need separate accounting treatment because admission is often non-taxable, F&B is taxable, and adoption fees legally belong to the rescue partner as a liability, not cafe revenue.
The FTC's April 2026 ANPRM targets hidden food-delivery fees while a new NYC law raises the cap on platform charges to restaurants from 23% to 43%. What each change means, why a $50 order can net $41 or $28.50 depending on fee tier, and how to record gross sales and platform fees correctly.
Nineteen states raised their minimum wage on January 1, 2026, and Florida steps up to $15.00 on September 30. This guide covers which rate applies when federal, state, and local minimums overlap, how tipped-wage and exempt-threshold rules shift alongside the headline number, and how to budget for the pay-compression ripple effect across your wage ladder.
Automatic gratuities fail the IRS's four-factor tip test and must be taxed as wages, which excludes them from the FICA tip credit, the FLSA overtime rate, and the new "no tax on tips" deduction.
