CHARLOTTE — Shelby Gipson is a new mother, getting a “little” sleep, so she calls caffeine a must.
Both North and South Carolina tax hot coffee, but they differ when it comes to cold coffee, the pre-made kind in bottles and cans that stores have in the fridge or on shelves.
North Carolina taxes those too, but South Carolina says stores can charge that state’s 6% sales tax if -- and this is a big if -- the business is the kind where you typically stay and consume the beverage on the premises. But -- and here’s the point of our investigation -- they can’t charge the 6% at the kind of store where you typically grab and go.
So Stoogenke put it to the test. He went to 18 gas stations and grocery stores in Lancaster and York counties. He found the big chains got it right, including Circle K, Harris Teeter, Publix, and QuikTrip.
But smaller shops were hit-or-miss. Three charged the state sales tax: Lazy Daze Exxon on Gold Hill Road in Fort Mill, QuickMart on Celanese Road in Rock Hill, and Xpress Stop #5 on Cherry Road in Rock Hill.
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“I mean $0.50 is $0.50. It adds up after a while,” Shelby Gipson said. “It’s my pennies,” her mother added.
After his visits, Stoogenke tried contacting all three businesses. Only one responded in time for this report.
Xpress Stop emailed: “We’re sorry this happened. At times, certain items need to be manually adjusted in our system, and it’s possible that this product was not updated correctly. We are currently reviewing all products to make sure anything not properly handled by our automated system is corrected. Our team is committed to ensuring accurate pricing and tax application, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.”
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South Carolina’s Department of Revenue emailed Action 9, saying: “Ensuring compliance with the state’s tax laws is the SCDOR’s highest priority. Anyone who encounters a business who they believe is out of compliance is encouraged to submit a report to the SCDOR. There are several ways to do that, including emailing the SCDOR section that administers the tax in question, or submitting the Tax Violation Compliant form (CID-27). Once the SCDOR receives a report detailing non-compliance, our agency will make contact with the taxpayer in question and determine whether or not they are in compliance. If not, we will follow up with the business, with the goal of educating the business owners and ensuring that they are collecting and remitting the tax properly in the future.”
They wouldn’t say whether they planned to follow up on the three businesses in this report, writing, “We are unable to disclose any administrative action we take for any particular taxpayer.”
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“At the end of the day, what can you do, right?” Ruth Lopez-Camargo said.
Here’s what you can do: know the rules so you can protect your wallet. If you are in South Carolina, have a craving for a ‘packaged’ coffee drink, and buy it from a place where customers usually take the drink with them instead of drinking it there, you should ‘not’ be paying the 6% state sales tax. That said: you may still have to pay city or county taxes, which are usually between one and three percent. In North Carolina, you’re taxed no matter what coffee you buy, or where.
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