Bill would help Colorado companies save money for credit card transaction fees

Denver – A new invoice could help companies across Colorado save money by preventing credit card companies from implementing transaction fees for tips and sales tax.

This would result in relief for small companies that have to deal financially and face the challenges of food prices and minimum wage costs.

Rep. Max Brooks, R-Castle Rock, is one of the sponsors of House Bill 1282 and said it started at the community level because the restaurant owners told him about the thousands of dollars who have to pay for swipe fees. Brooks also emphasized that customers may not recognize the difficulties that make these fees for small companies.

“Now the Swipe fees are a comfort fee for using a credit card. Many people don't know that, although they understand that there is a transaction fee, there is also a transaction that deals with the dealers especially for taxes and tips from the law,” said Brooks.

Coperta, a Southern Restaurant in Uptown, Pasta dishes, has served since 2016 and watched the neighborhood grew. Aileen Riley, co -owner of the restaurant, described the current challenges that you have a local place in the constantly changing restaurant industry.

“I've been doing it for almost 25 years, and it has never been more difficult between the food prices that increase drink prices and increase the minimum wage costs, only things that go with eggs … but also only people who go out the same way, they see a downturn and the people we have to take due to the increases that we also had to take, and it is very difficult,” said Riley.

Another costly challenge that the restaurant navigated is transaction fees, since it used fewer people in money when their bill was closed, but rely on credit cards.

“Last year we paid 61,000 US dollars of swipe fees and only in perspective, for a restaurant in our size, that is about 5,000 US dollars less than we spent on the purchase of beer, wine and alcohol. So it is a large number for us,” said Riley. “If you think these are the articles from which we actually sell and achieve income, the fact that we pay these larger companies almost equally in Swipe fees, this is a very large part of what we do.”

If the new invoice were adopted, Riley said that they would save almost 10,000 before taxes and tips that are excluded.

“This legislation would have such an influence for us, since we would not pay this percentage of money that we return to the government directly in our sales tax and our employees, and this is a start, and at the moment it only needs help and many companies that they can receive,” said Riley.

Many restaurants continue to fight after pandemic, when Sonia Riggs, CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association, said that companies lose money.

“I heard in restaurants that their typical profit margin was 3 to 5%. Now I hear that it is 1 to 2% if you are lucky if you make money at all,” said Riggs.

She explained that many of these companies lose thousands of dollars against these transaction fees. Riggs said: “So the restaurants in 2025 say that they expect an average of around 200,000 US dollars per year to pay swipe fees, and around $ 50,000 dollars, the fees directly to sales tax and tips. This invoice would save the restaurants a significant amount of money.”

Anaya Salcedo

Stacy Johnson, the owner and operator of Salon Bodhi, said, while credit cards are convenient when paying invoices.

“It doesn't feel like we have a lot of control over it, so it is only the price to do business, which is unhappy because everything seems to go to credit cards. People don't wear much money,” said Johnson.

If this calculation were adopted, Johnson is confident that the saved money could be used for other efforts instead.

“It would help to free yourself in the classroom, only ongoing education and only this type of money could be transferred to something that would help the business and not to score and not score,” said Johnson.