Questions abotu service fees and taxes

[theantibride]

Okay so my fiance and I try to get a better feel for what things are gonna cost us other than that silly ol' wishbook. And the big problem we're having is the service fees and taxes. Can anyone PLEASE help us? What exactly gets hit with a service fee and tax. I'm sure everything gets taxed but what about service fees? Here's everything we need:
Ceremony location (yacht club gazebo): tax and service fees?
Entertainment (musicians, DJs, characters): tax and service fees?
Transportation: tax & service fees?
Photography: Tax and service fees?

I know all food & beverage gets hit with both as does floral, correct? What about upgraded table styles? What are we looking at there? Any help on this would be SOOOOOO appreciated!

 

[FoodLover]

Okay so my fiance and I try to get a better feel for what things are gonna cost us other than that silly ol' wishbook. And the big problem we're having is the service fees and taxes. Can anyone PLEASE help us? What exactly gets hit with a service fee and tax. I'm sure everything gets taxed but what about service fees? Here's everything we need:
Ceremony location (yacht club gazebo): tax and service fees?
Entertainment (musicians, DJs, characters): tax and service fees?
Transportation: tax & service fees?
Photography: Tax and service fees?

I know all food & beverage gets hit with both as does floral, correct? What about upgraded table styles? What are we looking at there? Any help on this would be SOOOOOO appreciated!

To the best of my knowledge, service fees only apply to the catering charges. Essentially they are building in tips for the servers. There should be no service fee on location, entertainment, transportation, photography, table upgrades or floral. Everything is subject to 6.5% sales tax.

Mary
MouseWeddings.com

 

[theantibride]

Awesome!!! Thank you! You just made our day cause we were figuring out fees and stuff and we were like WOW! Cause then our budget went through the roof!

 

[PrincessBride010103]

there is definately a 21% service charge on transportation & im pretty sure our DJ had one too but not 100% positive

 

[theantibride]

Cool, thanks. We signed our contracts a while back so our service charge is still only 20%. Every little bit helps! I thought transportation and DJ might have one, but we weren't sure. Do you remember if there's one for floral or is it already factored into the cost of the bouquets and stuff?

 

[PrincessBride010103]

there is no service fee on the floral

 

[theantibride]

Hooray! Thank you so much!

 

[PrincessBride010103]

Hooray! Thank you so much!

your welcome

 

[lurkyloo]

Actually, there is no service fee on transportation and there are other fees for floral that basically act like service fees - move fees, set-up fees and delivery fees.

The photography paperwork says photography is subject to tax, but I think that must only be on products like prints and albums, because we weren't charged tax on our MK shoot.

There is also a service fee on any AV elements, like a sound system or microphones for the ceremony or an iPod setup for the reception. BUT those service fees aren't taxed the way food and beverage service fees are.

It's all very confusing...

 

[PrincessBride010103]

Im pretty sure our limo had a 20% service fee.

 

[theantibride]

Good to know. Thank you for all your help!

 

[lurkyloo]

Im pretty sure our limo had a 20% service fee.

That's weird - ours didn't, nor did the buses. Time to ask for a refund!

 

[PrincessBride010103]

That's weird - ours didn't, nor did the buses. Time to ask for a refund!

for real! i remember because i specifically asked our planner so i would know if we needed to tip the driver or not and she said it was in the service fee