Higher Costs, Lower Earnings: How D.C.’s New Delivery Tax is Failing the District

Today, the D.C. Council voted to impose a new delivery tax on every D.C. resident. It's a tax on medicine. It's a tax on groceries. It's a tax on diapers and formula. The law was written to be overly-broad and to jack up prices on the things every D.C. resident needs, anytime they want it delivered from a local business. The tax will cost residents a minimum of 20 cents per order and could take effect as early as this fall as the city struggles under an affordability crisis.

DoorDash strongly opposes regressive taxes that hit small businesses and working families the hardest. The evidence is clear: cities that have tried this have found out the hard way that delivery taxes often hurt the people they claim to help.

The numbers
Based on DoorDash's estimates, D.C.'s new delivery tax is projected to:

• Cost D.C. residents more than $3.5 million in additional taxes annually

• Cause Dashers to lose more than $2 million in earnings each year

• Strip local D.C. businesses of more than $7 million in revenue per year

These are DoorDash figures alone. Every platform and third party delivery service operating in the District faces the same tax, making these projections only a fraction of the total impact to residents, Dashers, and local businesses.

This hits D.C.'s most vulnerable residents and local businesses hardest
More than 20% of all DoorDash deliveries in the District go to residents in low-income communities. These are people who rely on delivery not as a convenience or luxury, but as critical access to food, medical supplies, and household essentials like toilet paper and diapers.

In 2025, DoorDash facilitated more than 150,000 orders paid for by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A flat tax on every delivery is regressive, hurting those who rely on delivery most.

In the weeks before today's vote, Dashers gathered more than 500 petition signatures and went to the Wilson Building in person to ask lawmakers one thing: don't make it harder to serve the people who need it most. The Council voted yes anyway.

Making matters worse: Even in the face of broader inflation, D.C. restaurants have fought to keep price increases for consumers to just 2.5% year over year, among the lowest in the country according to our latest State and Local Commerce report. This tax will undoubtedly threaten restaurants' ability to keep costs down for their customers.

Other cities have tried this
Colorado and Minnesota are the only two states to have enacted a delivery tax and both have struggled to deliver on their promises.

In Colorado, independent economic research two years into implementation found the state's fee imposes a financial burden up to 6.5 times greater on disadvantaged communities, including people with disabilities who depend on delivery services. At the time, it caused $17.1 million in annual wage losses for delivery and restaurant workers and threatened more than 61,000 jobs across industries. Despite this, the state has only raised the fee- now at $0.31 per delivery and still climbing.

What comes next
DoorDash will continue to stand beside the Dashers, small businesses, and D.C. residents who were let down today. As this tax takes effect, we will be transparent about its real-world impact on the communities it claims to serve and we will keep advocating for policies that empower D.C. neighborhoods rather than make it more expensive to live in them.