Receipt Check: Beverage tax added turns out to be just the tax

OZARK, Mo. (KY3) - A couple from Nixa, Mo., noticed something unusual on their restaurant receipt. It listed a beverage tax for their soda.

“I got the receipt and saw the $.57 beverage tax,” Matt Mastroianni and his wife noticed when they went to Ozark to pick up Popeye’s for dinner.

The couple couldn’t figure out why he was being charged an extra tax on top of the food tax for a drink. They posted the question on social media, and others on Facebook responded by saying they’ve seen a similar tax added to theirs and don’t know why.

“We’ve lived in Christian County well over 30 years, and all of our adult children don’t know anything about it,” Mastroianni says.

The beverage tax was just a weird breakdown on the receipt.

We did the math. In Ozark, taxes are divided by state, county, and local.

Missouri state sales tax: 4.2225%

Christian County sales tax: 1.750%

Ozark: 2.375%

That total comes out to 8.350%

The same as the total on the receipt.

“Each organization is going to break it down how they break it down internally,” Samantha Payne, the Deputy City Administrator, says.

“I don’t know if they have some sort of special way that they want to keep track of beverages versus food, but they were charged the city sales tax rate, at least for the city of Ozark.”

There is no beverage tax added on in Ozark. If you want to see where taxes are where you are shopping or eating anywhere in Missouri, click HERE.

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