Question on drink tax

I should know the answer to this but I don’t. If my husband purchases the all inclusive beverage plan for our trip to Hawaii will he be charged tax on each drink? We just returned from a short carnival cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada. He bought the soda plan and was charged 28 cents per soda when we were not at sea. They said we had to be 8 miles from the port to avoid the tax. I’m not sure if the alcohol plan is the same.

You may be charged local sales tax while you are "in port" on any drink

You may be charged local sales tax while you are "in port" on any drink

Ok thank you

I thought it was only NY and Texas that requires tax while in port. Thanks.

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That is why I am saying maybe - I have been charged in California and Florida in the past as well. It will vary from port to port but I do not believe I was ever charged sales tax while in port in Hawaii

With the AIBP it's not where you consume the drinks (I.E Hawaii or California etc) It's where you purchase the package. Example: Last November in San Pedro on boarding day all the servers were pushing/selling the AIBP to the boarding passengers, all those who bought the package that afternoon were charged California sales tax on the package price, all those who waited until that evening after sailing away to buy the package at sea were NOT charged CA sales tax.

Additionally If you received the package as a booking bonus there is absolutely no tax obligation, as there was no sales transaction what so ever

Srpilo

That is why I am saying maybe - I have been charged in California and Florida in the past as well. It will vary from port to port but I do not believe I was ever charged sales tax while in port in Hawaii

No offense meant. I was not sure if I was charged in Hawaii and thought there is one after your post. That is why I said thanks.

I've been charged sales tax for individual drinks when purchased while the ship is still in port in Florida and NYC. The only time I purchased the drink package, and that was in port, they didn't ring up the purchase until we left Fort Lauderdale. YMMV.

We have been charged the tax in San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Barbara.

I’m finding more and more cities are charging tax if purchases are made on board while in port.

I am now just assuming that if we are in a USA port, we will be charged the tax. I’ll happily accept those cities that don’t charge the tax, and just accept the ones that do.

On our last Hawaii cruise (2014) I only noticed the tax in San Francisco but you never know, things change

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I thought it was only NY and Texas that requires tax while in port. Thanks.

 

 

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Add Florida, California, Washington state.

I boarded in port everglades and decided I wanted a drink. I had the AIBP package gratis. Not liking the swill they sell while in port, I decided to get a soft drink. I ordered and they changed me sales tax for the drink while the drink itself was free (AIBP). After discussing it with the bartender, I decided to hit my free bar setup in the cabin.

Add Florida, California, Washington state.

 

 

 

I boarded in port everglades and decided I wanted a drink. I had the AIBP package gratis. Not liking the swill they sell while in port, I decided to get a soft drink. I ordered and they changed me sales tax for the drink while the drink itself was free (AIBP). After discussing it with the bartender, I decided to hit my free bar setup in the cabin.

Thanks for the info.

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We were charged more for a bottle of wine bought on board when we were in port in Hawaii than we were for the same wine bought a day or two later when we were at sea.

Add Florida, California, Washington state.

 

I boarded in port everglades and decided I wanted a drink. I had the AIBP package gratis. Not liking the swill they sell while in port, I decided to get a soft drink. I ordered and they changed me sales tax for the drink while the drink itself was free (AIBP). After discussing it with the bartender, I decided to hit my free bar setup in the cabin.

And add Louisiana to the list too! And it's a long way from New Orleans to international waters! :( I had an AIBP on NCL and got dinged a few times on the first night for the sales tax.

We were charged more for a bottle of wine bought on board when we were in port in Hawaii than we were for the same wine bought a day or two later when we were at sea.

Sounds like Hawaii is now the charging the tax based on your experience. How long ago was your cruise? My last Hawaiian cruise was 2014. I was hoping our next Hawaiian cruise wouldn't be taxed again, but it's looking unlikely. :(

Re Florida - when was your experience please? March 2017 we did not pay sales tax on drinks ordered with AIPB in port. Is this new since then? We were the first sailing on Royal without stickers where they just swiped our cards and were able to see we had the package.

Notice in the patter that drinks bought in port on the Royal would have 10% Spanish vat added

I should know the answer to this but I don’t. If my husband purchases the all inclusive beverage plan for our trip to Hawaii will he be charged tax on each drink? We just returned from a short carnival cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada. He bought the soda plan and was charged 28 cents per soda when we were not at sea. They said we had to be 8 miles from the port to avoid the tax. I’m not sure if the alcohol plan is the same.

Our experience with the soda package is that the sodas are just dispensed from the fountain guns. There is no ringing them up on the computer, thus no local sales tax. Our experience when purchasing the soda package on board is that the sales slip is hand written. It is then processed after the ship has sailed with no sales tax.

With the beverage package I believe that an alcoholic drink order is now placed through the computer system in order to count the alcoholic drinks against the daily limit. Thus it would seem that the local sales tax is probably charged as there is a record of time and date. If you receive a non-alcoholic drink there is a god possibility that it will not be run through the computer as no counting is necessary.

Even before the daily limit they rang up the alcoholic drinks for inventory purposes. I do not remember a VAT being added while in EU countries on my last 2 Trans Atlantic cruises - if something has changed I will find out when I sail from Rome on December 5th

We were charged a Spanish tax in Barcelona port before sailing.

Sounds like Hawaii is now the charging the tax based on your experience. How long ago was your cruise? My last Hawaiian cruise was 2014. I was hoping our next Hawaiian cruise wouldn't be taxed again, but it's looking unlikely. :(

A few months ago.

A few months ago.

Bummer, thanks. Guess all my ports will now be incurring an additional tax

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When we sailed NCL out of Miami in 2016 we were charged sales tax on drinks ordered while not yet in international waters the first night. We had the beverage package included as a perk (only paid the gratuities) and had it when we booked it, living in PA.

When we sailed Princess 10/21/17 from Brooklyn we had the Soda and More and were not charged tax on our diet cokes with lunch. They did not swipe our cards though.

You may be charged local sales tax while you are "in port" on any drink

FYI: also applies to food. We made the mistake of eating in Crown Grill as the ship was leaving port. Great views, but really surprised to see that tax had been added. Lesson learned.

We were charged tax on our drinks while in all of the Hawaiian ports on our recent cruise there.

How obnoxious! If the guvmint insists that Princess charges sales tax, Princess has to comply, but what a pain for Princess to keep track and pay state and local sales tax.

My on-board purchases in port are pretty minimal, and adding 10 percent or so in taxes won't make much difference, but just the administrative burden for the ship seems too high in relation to the additional revenues that the guvmint gets.