Oceans Grille

I purchased $100 gift card today [04/08/21], as well as a to-go food order, from Oceans Grille at 11:57 am. I noticed the tax on the printed invoice/receipt was high, so I asked the female bartender, who was performing the transaction, if she accidently taxed me on the gift card rather than just on the to-go food order. The bar tender advised me that their cash register is "old" and that she must tax me on the gift card--"there is no other way for me to do it," she replied. On the printed receipt/invoice, the gift card appeared as a "food" item. The bartender made no attempt to remove the tax or to process or ring up the gift card differently with her cash register system.

I pointed out to the bartender that she is taxing me, the gift card purchaser, and also taxing the gift card recipient when the recipient uses the gift card in the future to purchase food/beverage items with the gift card. I advised the bartender that this double taxation is illegal. She did not agree with my assessment of the situation and tried to argue that the tax charged to me on the gift card is "no different from the fee you pay for a gift card at CVS." I advised the bartender that a gift card fee, such as the fee a person must pay on an American Express or Visa gift card, is entirely different than tax. The bar tender quickly brushed me off and told me my only options were to purchase the gift card with tax applied or she can void the transaction for me. I ultimately agreed to purchase the gift card with tax applied to the transaction because the intended recipient had specifically requested I purchase the gift card from Oceans Grille.

Based on the above event, it is clear that: (1) Oceans Grille has a restaurant-wide policy that all gift cards must be taxed at the time of purchase AND when the recipient used the gift card to purchase food/beverage items, or (2) the double taxation issue/concern is specific to this bartender [i.e., she, alone, does not know how to properly complete the transaction without tax being applied]

Based on the bartender's statement, "there is no other way for me to do it," and the fact that she made no attempt whatsoever to ring up the transaction differently so that tax did not apply, I can only conclude that she has processed several gift card transactions at Oceans Grille with tax attached to the transaction, which leads me further to believe that this is a restaurant-wide double tax issue, practice, and procedure. In other words, it does not appear my experience today was an isolated event and that there must be several other instances--maybe even hundreds or thousands of other instances--in which Oceans Grille has double taxed the gift card purchaser and gift card recipient. As such, this matter should be looked into.