Hospitality Business Association of Chicago

ACTION ALERT: On Wednesday, March 18th the City Council is expected to take up an ordinance to freeze the Chicago tip credit at the current level of $12.62 per hour and indefinitely pause the scheduled July 1st, 2026 increase to about $14.20 - $14.30 per hour for front of house tipped staff (final figure will depend on inflation adjusted full minimum wage rate that City Hall will release in early June).

As bars, restaurants, and music venues across Chicago face shrinking margins, higher property tax bills, and customers deeply concerned about affordability, here are two big things you can do to get engaged on the tip credit:

1) Contact the City Council member(s) for both where you operate and where you live and explain to them that phasing out the tip credit while suburban competitors don't is an enormous disadvantage for your Chicago small business!

2) Attend City Council on March 18th at 8:30am if you want to support a tip credit press conference hosted by the Illinois Restaurant Association or later in the morning before the expected vote on the tip credit freeze which will likely take place between 11:30am and 1:30pm. Contact us for more logistics information on either option!

Sun-Times coverage on the tip credit vote:

Ald. Nugent pushes to freeze the phase-out of Chicago's subminimum wage for tipped workers At next week’s City Council meeting, Far Northwest Side Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th) plans to use a parliamentary maneuver to freeze the subminimum wage at 24% of the minimum hourly wage paid to Chicago workers who do not receive tips.

ALERT: The Illinois Liquor Control Commission has announced they will be switching to a new licensing platform on February 11th, 2026. Retailer will no longer be able to renew their State licenses on the MyTax Illinois portal but will instead need to re-register on the new ILCC platform.

The Hospitality Business Association of Chicago STRONGLY urges any bar, restaurant, or music venue with a February or March State license renewal go ahead and renew before the new platform launches unless you want to become an unpaid beta tester for it.

More from the ILCC on the upcoming change:
https://ilcc.illinois.gov/ilcc-portal/ilcc-portal-faqs.html

Property Tax Appeal Window Open For Hundreds of Chicago Bars, Restaurants, and Music Venues!

The Cook County Board of Review just announced the opening of the property tax appeal filing window for North Chicago and South Chicago townships (approximately the area bounded by Fullerton Avenue to the North, By Pershing/39th Street to the South, and from Lake Michigan all the way west to the Chicago River). There are a very large number of bars, restaurants, and music venues located in just those two townships.

If you are unhappy about your property tax bill please consider filing an appeal with the Board of Review before their February 18th deadline.

If you wish to review your property tax assessment and see how it compares to other nearby properties the Cook County Property Tax Portal is an excellent starting point.

https://appeals.cookcountyboardofreview.com/

This New Years Eve tragedy in Switzerland highlights the dangers of using pyrotechnics for bottle service in nightclubs and music venues. The City of Chicago has brought several major liquor license discipline cases against venues here for using pyrotechnics without proper precautions and this latest tragedy will surely make it an area of emphasis for CFD again in 2026.

If your venue does use any sort of pyrotechnics please protect yourself by verifying they comply with local and State fire codes and are allowed under your insurance coverage (they are often specifically excluded from coverage following several major US incidents).

Wishing our members a successful, but above all safe, 2026.

Here’s what to know about a deadly fire at a Swiss Alpine bar’s New Year celebration Swiss investigators are probing what caused a fire in a bar at an Alpine ski resort that left around 40 people dead and another 115 injured.

With Mayor Johnson not exercising any veto on the 2026 City Budget we can finally declare victory, or at least a deep breath of relief, that the 2026 budget does not include any new taxes or major permit and license increases on Chicago's bars and restaurants!

A new 3% sales tax on off-premise alcohol sales (to go) was cut in half thanks to beer, wine, and spirits industry opposition led by the Hospitality Association and we will work with City Hall and our members who do sell to go alcohol to make the transition as smooth as possible this year.

Lastly, the passed budget DOES finally allow State licensed video gaming in bars and restaurants. The Hospitality Association will host a in-person and webinar update on that on the afternoon of Monday, December 29th. Invite via newsletter going out the evening of December 23rd. Or email [email protected] to RSVP.

Mayor Brandon Johnson backs down, will not veto City Council's alternate budget By not vetoing the budget, Johnson solidifies the will of 30 alders who took control of this year’s budget process.

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission has issued the following guidance letter for liquor licensees following yesterday's release by of new State of Illinois Digital IDs.

PLEASE CAREFULLY NOTE the ILCC requires you to digitally verify these digital IDs with an app only available to iPhones on the Apple App Store, not just eyeball them in customer's Apple Wallets.

The ILCC is expected to clarify shortly that customers are still required to have a physical ID on them as well as a Digital ID AND that retailers are NOT required to accept Digital IDs. The Hospitality Association will of course post an alert as soon as that update is released.https://www.ilsos.gov/content/dam/departments/drivers/mobile-id/ILCCletter.pdf

It was Hospitality Association Director Pat Doerr's pleasure to appear on WTTW - Chicago PBS Chicago Tonight earlier this month and debate the hidden economic costs to Chicago and Chicago residents of Mayor Johnson's proposed $21 per job per month tax on many small and medium size homegrown businesses.

Mayor Brandon Johnson Doubles Down on Taxing Big Companies, Sparking Debate Mayor Brandon Johnson is calling for more taxes on big companies in his 2026 budget proposal. Under the mayor’s plan, businesses in Chicago with more than 100 employees would have to pay $21 for each employee every month.

The Hospitality Association is deeply saddened, annoyed, and chagrined to report that Mayor Johnson's 2026 City of Chicago budget apparently includes a 20-30% increases in business license and liquor license costs based on the budget's revenue estimates.

Those increases far, far exceed their projected increases in sales based taxes in the budget and thus can only be reached by raising the already sky high cost of every Chicago liquor and business license.

REMARKABLY this millions of dollars in higher annual license and permit fees that every locally owned bar and restaurant in Chicago will have to pay didn't even merit a mention in the Mayor's 2026 budget address or press releases. Whether the administration thinks small businesses wouldn't notice or if they just didn't care enough about Chicago's small businesses to bother mentioning it on budget day is an interesting if disheartening question.

In any case, Chicago's locally owned bars and restaurants already have some of the highest licensing fees in Chicagoland and the Hospitality Association looks forward to zealously opposing the proposed increase to our already sky high fee burden.

The Illinois Retail Merchants Association have put up a web site to help customers and businesses oppose the BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR $1.50 per delivery tax on delivered meals and packages that the Illinois Senate approved in May.

The Illinois House is currently considering the Illinois Senate's pizza and package delivery tax. Consider using the links at the site below to tell your elected officials the last thing your business and your economically anxious customers need is a new billion dollar a year delivery tax on providing your food to your customers.

No To Delivery Taxes - Say No To Illinois Delivery Taxes Say NO to Harmful Illinois Delivery Taxes Working families cannot afford another devastating tax Delivery Taxes are Regressive and Hurt Working Families Delivery is not a luxury. Illinois residents across the economic spectrum rely on it as a lifeline.  A January 2025 survey by Morning Consult foun...

The IRS recently released guidance on how the recently passed "No Tax on Tips" legislation will be interpreted. Akerman law firm has published a comprehensive guide that HBAC urges every bar and restaurant operator to review on how this tax change will work for your staff.

* If you impose a mandatory service charge very carefully review if it is included or excluded from the new "No Tax on Tips" law.

• Nothing in the new law appears to change other existing City, State, and Federal laws on tip pooling or management/BOH participation in tip pools so please consult qualified accounting or legal advisors before changing your tip distribution policies due to "No Tax on Tips" changes.

HRDef: What Employers Need to Know About No Tax on Tips and No Tax on Overtime The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), the sweeping, comprehensive budget legislation enacted on July 4, 2025, seeks to fulfill several key campaign promises of President Donald Trump. Among those promises, the OBBBA makes good on Trump’s pledge to reduce taxes on tips and overtime for work...

As kids head back to school this week, take a few minutes and check if your FOH and door staff need to go back to (BASSET) school too.

State responsible server certifications expire after 3 years. You can with the ILCC web site to see if you or your staff are current here: http://bit.ly/45B1yHv

BASSET Card Lookup Click on Print My BASSET Card to re-print your certification card. Note: BASSET cardholders who were trained prior to May 1, 2015 may NOT be automatically registered into the database. If you need a replacement BASSET card and know your “Training Class Student ID” please click on Print My BASSET...