Campus Starbucks mistakenly overcharged tax on extra espresso shots for eight months

All campus Starbucks locations at Miami University mistakenly charged customers with state taxes on mobile ordered drinks with extra espresso shots since an app update on July 1, 2025.

Most customers didn’t notice the issue for the eight months it occurred. Meredith Murray, junior strategic communication major, purchases Starbucks a few times weekly. Between classes she will often use the campus locations for convenience. Murray said she uses the mobile ordering app, but she doesn’t normally check her receipts after purchasing. Although she is a frequent customer, she had not heard of or noticed this issue.

However, Karthik Vishwanath, associate professor of physics, noticed the problem in late January or early February when his latte with an extra shot of espresso cost $6.58 instead of the usual $6.50.

Vishwanath emailed Vineel Tummala, IT specialist at Miami Dining, for an explanation as to why he was getting charged more on campus.

“I spoke with Starbucks corporate team regarding the $0.08 charge on the extra espresso shot, and it appears the mobile app is incorrectly applying tax to that add-on,” Tummala wrote in an email to Vishwanath. “Starbucks is working on fixing the issue so the improper tax is removed from the app.”

The next day, Vishwanath emailed saying nothing had changed. Tummala wrote an email response telling him to place his order in person in the meantime and offered him a complimentary drink. Vishwanath declined the drink but requested to hear a plan for a transparent public statement from Starbucks corporate.

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“They were sort of telling me, we’ll calculate how much you must have spent and refund you. And I’m like what kind of naughtiness is this,” Vishwanath said. “How many people are impacted?”

On March 16, Jason King, vice president of operations at Miami Dining, sent an email to Vishwanath. King wrote there was an extensive review with Starbucks Regional Operations and their IT team regarding the tax issue. He said when the extra espresso shot button was updated last year, it was inadvertently coded as a taxable item.

The issue was corrected, and the taxable tag was removed campus wide, erasing the extra $0.08 charge on the modifier.

Geno Svec, senior director of dining services at Miami, wrote in an email to The Miami Student clarifying Miami Dining operates all campus locations, however, Starbucks manages the app ordering and point of sale systems, as well as being responsible for updating the extra espresso shot button.

Ohio Revised Code imposes sales tax on each retail sale made in the state. Dine-in food is subject to sales tax. Take-out food — in this case mobile orders — is exempt from sales tax. While many customizations do not fall under the tax-exempt category, espresso shots are exempt.

Although this did not affect students using dining dollars due to meal plans being tax-exempt, anyone using a card to order extra espresso shots from the Bell Tower, Shriver Center or Withrow Hall locations on the Starbucks app was affected. Starbucks did not share if the issue is occurring at other universities or locations in Ohio, Svec wrote.

After reviewing the situation with Starbucks, Svec wrote that the tax collected and submitted to the State of Ohio from all sales, not only the extra espresso shots, was approximately $300 from the start of this semester alone.

Svec also wrote any guest requesting a refund may reach out to Starbucks directly to initiate the process. There is in-app support or customer service which can be reached by calling 1-800-STARBUC. Guests will need to provide the transaction date and receipt number for the agent to process the tax refund.

duganec@miamioh.edu