Glossary · Texas mixed beverage taxes
Texas mixed beverage taxes, defined.
Texas mixed beverage taxes are the two state taxes on alcohol sold for on-premises consumption by TABC mixed beverage permittees: a mixed beverage gross receipts tax — currently 6.7% per the Comptroller — that the business itself owes, and a mixed beverage sales tax — currently 8.25% — collected from the customer. Two taxes, two legal payers, two different homes in the books: the gross receipts tax is the bar's own expense and may not appear on the bill as a separate charge, while the sales tax is the customer's money passing through in trust. Most tangled bar books trace to treating the pair as one thing.
Updated July 2026 · Rates and rules are the Comptroller's and can change — its site is the authority; which regime your permit falls under is a TABC, Comptroller, and CPA determination. We structure books so each tax is trackable and provable.
The term in one breath
The gross receipts tax — 6.7%
The permittee's own tax on its alcohol receipts. By Comptroller rule it can't be added to the bill as a separate charge — it books as the business's expense.
The sales tax — 8.25%
The customer's tax on the same drink — a line item or built into the price, collected in trust, and booked as a liability, never revenue.
Why the split matters
One tax reduces your margin; the other was never your money. Blur them and the P&L and the liability accounts both lie.
The concept
One drink, two returns — and what that demands of the books.
The pair dates to January 1, 2014, when House Bill 3572 split the old single 14% gross receipts tax into today's 6.7% + 8.25% structure — one tax the business owes, one it collects. Scope, per the Comptroller: mixed beverage permittees owe the taxes on alcoholic beverages — distilled spirits, beer, ale, and wine — sold, prepared, or served for on-premises consumption, and on the ice and nonalcoholic mixers served to be mixed with them; there's no exemption from the gross receipts tax, even for otherwise tax-exempt organizations. Wine-and-malt-beverage retailers sit outside the definition and collect regular sales and use tax instead — and which side of that line a permit falls on is a TABC, Comptroller, and CPA determination, never a bookkeeping guess.
In the books, the two taxes run in opposite directions. The sales tax posts to a liability account the moment it's collected — it never touches revenue, and the account drains only when the return is filed, which means the liability balance should tie to the filed return every month, on the same rhythm as the month-end close. The gross receipts tax accrues as the bar's own operating expense against the month's alcohol receipts — it reduces margin the way rent does, and by Comptroller rule the bill can carry at most a disclosure of it, never a separate tax charge. Both returns are due the 20th of the following month, each backed by its own security bond. What makes all of it provable is the point-of-sale summary splitting alcohol from food cleanly — the discipline the bar guide builds on the Whose-Money Test: before a dollar posts anywhere, name whose dollar it is.
Side by side
The two taxes, one row at a time.
| Mixed beverage gross receipts tax | Mixed beverage sales tax | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate today (Comptroller; can change) | 6.7% of the permittee's alcohol gross receipts | 8.25% of the beverage's sales price — statewide, no local split |
| Who legally owes it | The permit holder — the business itself | The customer; the permittee collects and remits |
| On the customer's bill | Never as a separate charge; at most an optional disclosure statement | Allowed either way: a line item, or built into the drink price with records showing it |
| Where it lives in the books | An operating expense accrued against the month's alcohol receipts | A liability account from the moment of sale — never revenue |
| What it does to your numbers | Comes out of margin, like rent — pricing has to carry it | Passes through — booked right, it inflates neither revenue nor expense |
| The paperwork | Its own monthly Comptroller return, due the 20th, with its own security bond | Its own monthly Comptroller return, due the 20th, with its own security bond |
Every row is the Comptroller's rule, stated as of July 2026 — rates, receipt-format specifics, and edge-case treatments can change, and the Comptroller's site is the authority when they do. What doesn't change is the bookkeeping logic: the collected tax was never yours; the gross receipts tax always was.
Related terms
Where this term connects.
Month-end close — the rhythm on which the tax liability ties to the filed returns · Bank reconciliation — the proof that the cash the taxes ride on is real · The Whose-Money Test — our owned framework: name whose dollar it is before it posts.
Bar books where the two taxes blur together? The free review reads your file and says plainly whether the liability account, the expense accrual, and the filed returns actually tie — and what untangling costs, fixed-fee.
Free books assessmentMixed beverage taxes FAQ · Updated July 2026
The definitional questions.
Books built for the building this tax lives in: bar bookkeeping for the alcohol side, restaurant bookkeeping where the kitchen carries half the register. Not sure what shape the file's in: the scope quiz.
Keep reading
The method behind the term.
Bar bookkeeping in Texas
The full method — the Whose-Money Test, the daily sales summary, and the ledger that keeps two taxes provable.
Keep readingBookkeeping built for bars
What a bar-built monthly service handles — pour cost made real, cash-heavy nights, and the two-tax ledger kept tied out.
Keep reading