Idea: Restaurants are free to bill patrons in either of these way:

1.) Only published menu prices, plus the exact amounts of any State & Local sales taxes

2.) All they fees & surcharges & whatever that they can dream up

But - for restaurants that go with #2, the state & local tax authorities are allowed to pad the restaurant's tax bills with whatever they can dream up.

“Our business depends on lying about our prices” doesn’t get any sympathy from me.

If somewhere charged a mandatory 20% “service fee” in lieu of tips, then why don’t they just up the prices 20%?

I mean, sure the prices will go up - but not how much the customer pays. 20% mandatory on $100 is $120. Increasing prices by 20% is still $120.

What am I missing?