One detail on the restaurant receipt should raise suspicion

Do you sometimes unwittingly become an accomplice to fraud in a restaurant? If a detail is visible on the bill, this is possible.

Kassel – Anyone who reads this word on their receipt in a restaurant should quickly become suspicious: “interim invoice”. If this is on the bill, it could be fraud.

Employees of the tax authority: “Every third restaurant visit” interim invoices

It is a matter of Pseudo-invoiceswhich show what the guest has ordered so far, but not yet a final bill. In the evening, however, the bills can be deleted from the till. This is how the restaurant operator or operators smuggle revenues past tax. “This is a well-known method,” said Daniel Stricker from the Hamburg tax authority to the TimeA lawyer in Frankfurt explained to Die Zeit that he was given interim bills “every third time he went to a restaurant” and that he knew that these would be deleted later. In a restaurant, however, a waiter recently tried to rip people off.

Lawyer Martin Schnell also explains on RTL-Request that interim invoices can indicate a tax offense by the operator. Some interim invoices even explicitly state: “This is not an invoice.” The words “interim receipt,” “preliminary invoice,” “draft invoice,” or “cash receipt” can also be used, as the Time found out in a research. Important: Without an invoice number it is not an invoice.

Interim invoices can also have objective reasons

Schnell also explains that there can be objective reasons for an interim invoice, such as a shift change among employees. A larger group where it is not yet clear whether they will pay separately or together can also be a legitimate reason for an interim invoice.

A restaurant bill (symbolic image). © Sina Schuldt/ dpa

But: “Then a proper invoice should be issued later.” He goes on to explain why this can be dangerous for customers: “If this does not happen and the restaurant operator commits a tax offense using the interim invoice – i.e. does not pay tax on the income – the customer may be complicit,” explains the lawyer. In Italy, restaurant visitors are obliged to take their bill with them and show it to checks near the restaurant in order to put a stop to this fraud. Meanwhile, guests in Sweden recently got caught out with a 7,300 euro bill.

Do customers have to report it if they receive “interim invoices”?

However, customers are not required by law to report interim bills. “Private individuals are not obliged to report crimes that have already occurred. Even those who learn of a planned crime do not have to inform the investigating authorities – unless it is a case of certain, particularly serious crimes such as murder or robbery. Only then is it obligatory to file a criminal complaint.” Suspicion of tax evasion is not serious. “Restaurant guests have nothing to fear here,” said Christian Solmecke, a lawyer in Cologne.

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