La Contessa closing?

[unbelman.livejournal.com]

I've heard that La Contessa is closing and turing into a Sushi place

confirm or deny?

Comments

[ron_newman]

I thought Annette's family owned the shop? In any event, she told me she was closing at the end of April (not Easter). She said that "yuppies don't buy Italian pastries" and that "all the Italians have moved out". She has stopped selling coffee because she doesn't want to pay sales tax. I don't understand this, since she is supposed to collect the tax from us, not pay it herself.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That's very sad. I liked the old-school character it added to Davis. I live around the corner from Lyndell's so I usually go there, but I've occasionally bought things at Contessa. I don't like sushi, so I'm really sorry to see it go.

[spatch]

It had wonderful character.

Gentrification rides again. Hey, why not put in an upscale restaurant, like those really really successful operations over where Yee's Village used to be? Yeah, that'll work great. Just think! A new yupscale restaurant every six months! Whoopee!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Fuck it, let's just rip up every store on that block and put in an enormous Walmart. The kind that won't fill birth control prescription or sell CD with parental warning stickers.

There needs to be a Sims Davis Square game.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

There's a fair amount of paperwork and aggravation associated with collecting sales tax, though I'd think for complementary sales it would be worth it.

[ron_newman]

but I don't know why coffee would be subject to sales tax if pastries aren't.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

That's part of the headache.

Staples (grocery store food) isn't taxed. However, packaged or prepared food is. If you buy bread and meat and make your own sandwich, no tax. If you buy a sandwich someone else made, you pay tax.

If you bought coffee beans? No tax. But if someone brews it and hands it to you? Tax.

These aren't the terms the state uses, but that's the general idea. I would imagine most of the stuff they sell doesn't count as prepared or packaged food and doesn't draw the meals tax, but coffee definitely would.

Taxing

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

Helliograph;

You are exactly right. They should be charging 5% sales tax on the coffee sales and then once a week or once a month (depending on how much they collect) fill our a form (or do it online) and turn the $ over to the State. Its really not a big deal. I run a small business and do it.

Re: Taxing

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

It is a little more complicated for them, potentially. The state will compare their total take with what they're paying taxes on, and then they have to justify why cookies or canolis aren't packaged foods but coffee is. It draws fewer audits if everything you sell is exempt.