For strip clubs and adult nightclubs in Chicago or Seattle that charge a cover

The city taxes the door. Seattle taxes the free ones too.

Cordon keeps the door apart from the bar, night by night — covers, dance fees, bar and food, and anyone let in free or for less — and builds each period’s admission-tax figures: Chicago’s 9% amusement tax on charges paid, Seattle’s 5% on the full admission charge, free entries at the regular price. It shows what was collected and what is short.

Open the demo See pricing

Opens in this browser with two invented clubs already in it. No account, no email address, nothing installed.

Open the free demo →

The problem

Two cities, two taxes on getting in.

Chicago’s amusement tax is 9% of what patrons pay to view or take part, reported on Form 7510. Seattle’s admission tax is 5% of the full admission charge, owed for everyone who attends — a free or reduced entry is taxed at the regular price — and the club owes it whether or not it collected it. Bar and food are never a door charge. Mixing them is how a return goes wrong.

9.00%

Chicago’s amusement tax on charges for most taxable amusements since January 1, 2025, reported on Form 7510.

City of Chicago →

Seattle’s admission tax, on the full admission charge, with an admission tax endorsement on the licence.

City of Seattle →

Free entry

in Seattle is still taxed at the regular price — and owed whether it was collected or not.

Will not mark a period filed that is not ready.

Not a reminder. Filed refuses, with the reason named, while the period is still running, a Seattle free-entry night has no regular price, the confirmation number is missing, or the amount paid is less than the tax. A filed period cannot be edited. There is no override.

How it works

Venues, nights, return

Set each venue

Its city, how often it files and its due day as its registration says, whether dance fees are counted, and Seattle’s endorsement.

Write each night

Covers, dance fees, bar and food, tax collected, and the free and reduced entries with the regular price.

Build the return

Door charges, free entries at the regular price, the tax, what was collected and what is short. File it and mark it filed.

What it will never do

It builds the figures. It does not file them.

Cordon files nothing. You file on the city’s own form.

No filing.Nothing goes to either city. Cordon prints the period’s figures.

No guessed due dates.Neither city’s page states one, so each venue’s period and due day come from its registration.

It is not an accountant.A ruling on dance fees goes to the city or yours. Counting them is the careful setting.

It never touches a payment.The subscription is for software.

Pricing

Priced per venue

Less than one night’s cover.

Most clubs

One venue

$15/month

One club in Chicago or Seattle.

Door kept apart from the bar
Free entries at the regular price
Filing gate, no override

One venue, yearly

$150/year

The same, two months free.

Everything in One venue
Every period’s due date
Export for your bookkeeper

Subscription. Your bank statement says Cordon Software. Refunded in full on request within 30 days. Your licence key is emailed to you within two working days of payment.

Checkout is our own bitcoin server, not a card processor — nobody we had to apply to and nobody who can close the account. The button takes you straight to it. Give your email address there — that is where your key is sent.

Questions

The ones we actually get asked

Do dance fees count?

Whether private-dance fees are a charge to view is a setting per venue. Counting them is the careful choice.

Why tax people who got in free?

Seattle taxes everyone who attends at the regular price, free or reduced. Chicago taxes only the charge paid, so a comp carries none.

When are returns due?

Neither city’s page states it, so Cordon uses each venue’s own period and due day from its registration.

Is this tax advice?

No. It is the worksheet your bookkeeper would otherwise keep by hand.

What do I actually get when I pay?

The demo on this page is the whole program, running on invented records. Paying gets you a licence key — one line of text, emailed to the address you give at checkout within two working days. Paste it into the program and from then on it keeps your own records. Until then, nothing you type into it is kept.

The key is checked inside the page, on your own machine. It never calls us, so there is still no account and nothing about your business goes anywhere. If you ever stop paying, your records stay exactly where they are, read-only, and Export still hands you every one of them.

Open the demo before the next return

The invented Chicago lounge’s last monthly return is overdue. The Seattle club never taxed its free industry-night guests, and one of those nights has no regular price. Cordon catches every one.

Open the demo See pricing