Guest Post: Malta May As Well Abolish POS System Since Our VAT Department Is Getting Robbed Daily
Restaurants in Malta were among the most helped establishments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One restauranteur I know claimed that they couldn’t have had it better, because she and her husband cook, received thousands of euros in “help” while they kept going on.
This is not sour grapes – we dine out regularly and while prices for dining out have exploded, the places are bursting with patrons.
All well and good, and I am happy for them – but the aid which government gave them, will it have to be paid by all of us mortals on this barren island of ours?
I have dined regularly in several restaurants repeatedly, and every time, I had to beg – yes, beg! – and ask specifically for a fiscal receipt.
I do this for two reasons.
First, if I am to pay the tax, I insist that it ends in the government’s coffers.
Secondly, if the government does not collect these taxes, it will have to tax us even more in other ways to collect it anyway.
Over the last few months, I have been to around six to eight different restaurants. I alternate between them – but every time, I had to ask for the fiscal receipt.
One time, I dined in a restaurant with the bill for two coming up to €175 – that’s around €27 tax, and I had to ask for the fiscal receipt, of course.
Just this week, we dined in another one. The bill came to €150 and again, this time I was fed up waiting for the fiscal receipt and I had to walk out… some €23 tax, gone like that.
Not to mention the tax evasion on the profits!
The VAT Department is being screwed left, right and centre.
We are blatantly getting robbed in our faces, knowing full well that the money in tax we are paying is not going to the taxman but will be stolen by the establishment.
We dine out twice, sometimes three times a week. Around €75 VAT gets stolen each week if I do not insist to get the fiscal receipt…
The VAT Department has inspectors, but the abuse is rampant, barefaced and couldn’t be worse. A campaign needs to be set up to pressure the authorities to do something about it.
But in the face of it all, maybe they should just abolish the POS system and close this loophole once and for all.
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Have you ever found yourself leaving a restaurant without the proper reciepts?