NH Food Tax Calculator: What the 8.5% Rate Covers

The New Hampshire food tax is 8.5% on prepared meals and restaurant food, and zero on groceries. If you’re buying ingredients to cook at home, you pay no tax at the register. If you’re buying a sandwich, a coffee, or a sit-down dinner, the state’s Meals and Rentals Tax adds 8.5% to the bill. The rate is uniform statewide, with no county or city add-ons.

Groceries Are Not Taxed

Standard grocery shopping in New Hampshire is completely tax-free. Raw meat, produce, canned goods, dairy, bread, pasta, frozen vegetables, a frozen turkey — anything you’d pick up at the supermarket and prepare at home falls outside the tax.¹

Pre-packaged snacks sold in their original sealed containers are also exempt. Chips, crackers, candy, energy bars, and gum are not taxed when sold in the unopened packaging they arrived in. The same goes for sealed beverages: a bottled soda or juice from a cooler is tax-free.¹

Baked goods have their own rule. Buy six or more bakery items for off-premises consumption (a half-dozen muffins, a box of donuts) and there’s no tax. Buy a single muffin at the counter and it’s taxed.²

What the 8.5% Actually Covers

The Meals and Rentals Tax is set at 8.5% under RSA 78-A:6 and has held at that rate since October 2021.³ It applies to any food or beverage prepared for immediate consumption and sold by a restaurant, whether you eat it there or take it to go. Takeout packaging doesn’t change anything. A burger boxed up at the counter is taxed the same as one eaten at the table.²

“Restaurant” is defined broadly. The statute reaches cafés, lunch counters, hotel dining rooms, catering businesses, food trucks, ice cream stands, salad bars, street carts, snack bars, cocktail lounges, booths at fairs and festivals, and vending machines. If a business is primarily in the business of selling meals, it collects the tax, whether it operates out of a brick-and-mortar storefront or a cart at the farmer’s market.²

Bakeries sit on a line. A bakery that sells only baked goods in units of six or more for off-premises consumption falls outside the tax. Once it starts selling coffee, sandwiches, or prepared foods, it crosses into restaurant territory and must collect the 8.5% on those items, whether or not it has seating.⁴

Beverages in unsealed containers are taxable, even if the drink was packaged somewhere else. Pour that bottled juice into a cup behind the counter and it becomes a taxable beverage. Alcoholic drinks are explicitly included, whether served with food or on their own.²

How to Calculate the Tax

Multiply the pre-tax total by 0.085. A few examples:

A $12.00 lunch: $12.00 × 0.085 = $1.02 in tax, for a total of $13.02
A $50.00 dinner: $50.00 × 0.085 = $4.25 in tax, for a total of $54.25
A $250.00 catering order: $250.00 × 0.085 = $21.25 in tax, for a total of $271.25

Point-of-sale systems handle this automatically, and your receipt should list the meals tax as its own line. New Hampshire law also lets a restaurant fold the tax into the menu price instead of adding it at the register. When a restaurant takes that approach, the receipt must state that meals and rooms tax is included.⁵ Either way, your out-of-pocket cost is the same.

Tips and Service Charges

Voluntary tips are not taxed. Mandatory service charges and automatic gratuities are also generally exempt, but only if the restaurant meets all five of these conditions:⁴

The charge is not used to supplement wages or fund managerial bonuses.
The full amount is paid to the service staff who provided the service.
The charge is listed separately on the customer’s receipt.
The charge is usual and customary for the type of service.
The business keeps records proving how the gratuity was distributed.

If any condition fails, the mandatory charge becomes part of the taxable meal price. Large-party auto-gratuities are the common trip-wire. A restaurant that routes part of a mandatory service charge toward kitchen staff wages owes the 8.5% on that charge.

Settings Where Prepared Meals Are Still Exempt

Even when food qualifies as a prepared meal, RSA 78-A:6-c carves out certain organizations and settings:⁶

Schools exempt under IRC 501(c)(3) don’t charge the tax on meals served to enrolled students, faculty, employees, and volunteers. A campus dining hall open to the general public on a regular basis loses the exemption for those outside sales.
Meals served on the premises of a licensed hospital, convalescent home, nursing home, or home for the aged, to patients and employees, are exempt.
Meals served on the premises of a nonprofit organized exclusively for religious or charitable purposes are exempt, if net proceeds go entirely toward the organization’s mission. There is no blanket exemption for nonprofits; a nonprofit café open to the public generally collects the tax.
Meals served to inmates and employees of state, local, or federal institutions.
Meals provided to passengers in transit by airlines, trains, and buses.
Meals served to campers and employees at seasonal camps for children under 18.

If You Run a Business That Sells Prepared Food

Any business meeting the statutory definition of a restaurant must register with the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration and obtain a Meals and Rentals Tax license before collecting. Caterers need a separate license for off-site events. Registration, returns, and payments all run through the state’s Granite Tax Connect portal, with returns due the 15th of each month for the prior month’s collections.⁴⁷ Operators who file electronically and pay on time keep 3% of the tax collected as a commission; paper filers forfeit it.⁵

1
NH Department of Revenue Administration. New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules Rev 700
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:3 – Definitions
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NH Department of Revenue Administration. Meals and Rooms (Rentals) Tax
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NH Department of Revenue Administration. Meals and Rooms (Rentals) Tax
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:7 – Collection of Tax
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:6-c – Exception to Tax; Meals
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NH Department of Revenue Administration. Department of Revenue Calendar