Austria: Receipt lottery against tax evasion

The Austrian Financial Secretary Sonja Steßl makes a proposal: She wants to start a receipt lottery to combat fraud in catering establishments. Many restaurant owners do not report their revenues; with a cash register receipt and obligation she wants to change that. The additional lottery is intended to attract the customers for these measures.

The Ministry of Finance estimates that the hospitality industry evade every year between 500 million and 1 billion euros in sales tax…

Many restaurant owners and waiters that collect tax do not report complete turnover to the tax authorities. Therefore SPÖ Financial Secretary now proposes a drastic measure: Work with a certified cash register. To prevent manipulation, she is committed to connect the POS to the Federal data centre (for the purpose of remote audit) or the equipment must be safeguarded with an electronic signature. Second, they will require restaurant owners to continue to hand each guest a receipt regardless how small the amount is on the invoice.

Receipt Lottery: models Slovakia and Portugal

This project meets rejection. Owners fear of high investment costs and bureaucracy and they have Chamber of Commerce support for that. At the same time Secretary of State tries to showcase that receipt lottery system introduced in Slovakia and Portugal where realised successfully. The Slovak citizens present receipts to the state lottery company that draws and gives away every two weeks prices up to the value of 10,000 euros. The receipt data can be even submitted via SMS or e-mail by the citizens. In Portugal, the participants of the receipt lottery win sports car among other prizes.