Top 10 cities with highest meal taxes

When it comes to taxes on prepared meals, Minneapolis, Chicago and Virginia Beach, Va., rank as the three highest in the nation, according to a recent survey by The Tax Foundation.

The Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, released the study earlier this month. It ranked combined sales taxes and the growing number of specific municipal taxes on meals. Minneapolis led the ranking with a sales tax of 7.775 percent, and an additional meals tax of 3 percent, for a combined tax on meals of 10.775 percent.

The research group found that combined rates for the next four highest meal-tax cities were: Chicago, 10.75 percent; Virginia Beach, 10.5 percent, Seattle, 10 percent; and Washington, D.C., 10 percent.

The foundation also found 35 of the 50 cities in the study “do not charge a higher tax on meals than on other goods.”

During the recession, an increasing number of municipalities, ranging from Omaha, to 146 of Massachusetts’ 351 cities and towns, enacted meals taxes in addition to regular sales taxes to help make up for revenue shortfalls.

The foundation found the highest additional meal tax was 5.5 percent in Virginia Beach, Va., which has a 5-percent sales tax.