- 75 - gross profit is the "purchase markup". He indicated that in California restaurants markups range from 125 percent to 225 percent, depending upon the quality of the restaurant, with higher grade restaurants having higher percentage markups. According to Shimmon, for a sales tax audit the California State Board of Equalization uses a yardstick of a 100-percent markup on food purchases to test the accuracy of total reported sales. On the basis of data from the income tax returns of Toraya and the Takaos, Shimmon calculated the following purchase markups for Toraya's restaurants and the Takaos' Fillmore Street restaurant to be as follows: Purchases Markup Year Toraya Fillmore St. 1988 171% 186% 1989 179 178 1990 194 186 1991 219 173 Additionally, Shimmon stated that according to the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, normal cash sales reported are only 30 percent of total sales. For the restaurants in issue, Shimmon calculated that their reported cash sales equaled the following percentages of total reported sales: Year Percentage 1988 60% 1989 64 1990 61 1991 61 Shimmon concluded that the restaurants' ratio of gross profit to cost of sales and the restaurants' ratio of cash salesPage: Previous 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 Next
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