Proposition 51K0906

Projet de loi modifiant l'article 53 du Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 en matière de frais de restaurant.

General information ¶

Submitted by

PS | SP MR Open Vld Vooruit Purple Ⅰ

Submission date

March 12, 2004

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

tax relief direct tax catering industry tax on income

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR FN VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

April 1, 2004 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, dear colleagues, before the examination of the bill and the attached bill proposals, the committee had already held hearings on the broader problem of taxation in the horeca sector, including the issue of the tax deductibility of restaurant expenses.

The Minister of Finance first recalled the objectives of the government. The Government intends to increase the deductible quota of these fees in two stages. The deductible share will first increase from 50% (the current situation) to 62,5% for expenditure made from 1 January 2004 before increasing to 75%. This second increase shall apply, if possible, to expenditure made from 1 January 2005 or, if necessary, from a date to be fixed by the King. The government wants this second increase to come into effect only after the introduction of a Tax and Social Code of Conduct with the horeca sector. A protocol should also be concluded with the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain.

The Minister also explained that the provisions under review apply to restaurant costs in Belgium and abroad. For commercial representatives of the food sector, restaurant costs will be deductible as in the past at 100% as professional costs. Business restaurants and sports stadium lodges will be subject to the same restrictions as individuals: tax deductibility of 62,5% to subsequently increase to 75%. In cruise speed, this measure will have a budget impact of 50 million euros per year.

Furthermore, some members of the committee, authors of proposals having the same object as the project, recalled that they were in favor of the full deductibility of the restaurant costs but the whole project was nevertheless unanimously adopted.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, dear colleagues, in 1992 in the reform of the personal tax at the time, the deductibility of restaurant costs and reception costs was reduced from 100% to 50%. This was done through a budget-neutral operation, leaving most of the burden on the neck of the business.

The liberals have always been strongly opposed. This means a heavy adultery for the catering sector.

This was a serious discrimination, especially for the self-employed catering operator. The corporate restaurants, which were increasingly established, remained 100% deductible, as well as the logs for sports activities and the catering costs abroad. Only the self-employed catering provider had to pay for it. Also only those costs were reduced to 50%.

At the two-day Council of Ministers of 16 and 17 January, the Government decided to increase, from 2004, the deductibility of the catering costs, of restaurant costs and of reception costs, from 50% to 62,5% and to increase that from 1 January 2005 to 75%, however after an agreement with the sector has been reached on a social and fiscal code of conduct.

During the previous and current legislature, the VLD submitted a proposal to raise the deductibility back to 100%, but will withdraw its bill and support the present bill, given the favorable evolution of the government decisions.

In addition to these measures, the Peruvian government has already taken other measures in favor of the hospitality industry. For example, the Flemish Parliament abolished the opening tax from 1 January 2002.

In the future, we will also support another proposal, in particular the abolition of the licensing duty for the sale of strong drinks. That is an unfair tax, since it is a flat-rate tax that does not take into account the sale of the strong drinks. Catering companies that sell very many strong drinks pay identically the same price as catering companies that do so occasionally. We are therefore in favour of the complete abolition of this tax. This, of course, also means an administrative simplification, both for the administration of the register and for the hospitality operators themselves.

Another breakthrough that has come, recently at the European minitop, is the possibility of...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to clarify that I am requested urgently in the plenary session of the Senate.

No problem Mr. Minister. I look forward to your presence in this place!

Another breakthrough, which has been achieved thanks to the European minitop, is that there is a possibility to lower the VAT rate in the hospitality industry from 1 January 2006. In the previous legislature, the VLD has already submitted a proposal for a resolution to reduce the VAT rate to 6%. We are therefore pleased that Europe has now given the green light to have the opportunity to lower these VAT rates from 1 January. We would like to ask this government to work on this. I have asked Minister Reynders about this in the past. He has made it clear that it is his intention, as soon as possible, to ensure that VAT rates in the hospitality industry can drop. Mr. Minister, we hope you will be able to realize this from January 1, 2006.

We continue to fully support this proposal. We hope, of course, that in the future there will also be the possibility to get the deductibility of restaurant costs back to 100%. We are already satisfied with this result. We hope that the government will succeed in reaching a general hospitality agreement.

Mr. Speaker, in my place, I would like to remind you that hospitality policy was also repeatedly addressed by our group outside and within the group and that we too are in favour of a global policy.

For information from Mr. Lenssen, who spoke in his presentation of the year 1992 when we reduced the deduction of restaurant costs from 100% to 50%, I would like to go back a little further, in particular to the time of the shadow cabinet of Guy Verhofstadt. Then a note circulated for Mr. Verhofstadt with the plan that the deduction of restaurant costs would be reduced from 100% to 25%. It dates from the 1980s. We must, of course, go a long way into our memory, but 1992 is also a long way away. That only for information.

I would like to replicate that from the beginning, in 1999, we have pledged to raise this deductibility again to 100 percent. I am very pleased that we have now succeeded in this.