Catering industry operators that charge not only for meals but also additional service or cleaning fees shall include these fees in the list of sales, issue a uniform invoice, and pay the business tax.

The National Taxation Bureau of Kaohsiung, Ministry of Finance, stated that, as prescribed in Articles 1 and 14 of the Value-Added and Non-Value-Added Business Tax Act, those who sell goods or services within the territories of the Republic of China shall be levied with business income tax based on the sales amount. Article 16 of the same Act also points out that the said sales amount means the total consideration received from the sale of goods or services, including any charges collected by a business entity besides the sales amount of the goods or services sold.

The Bureau provides the following example: Seafood Restaurant A is a business entity required to use uniform invoices as judged by the taxation authority. A-Ming brought a bottle of whisky with him as he dined with friends at Seafood Restaurant A, and was notified that an additional cleaning fee of NTD 500 would be charged for bringing outside food. On that day, A-Ming and friends spent NTD 10,000 on food at the restaurant, with an additional service fee of NTD 1,000 （10%） charged. Therefore, Seafood Restaurant A should recognize the cleaning fee of NTD 500 and the service fee of NTD 1,000 as part of the sales price, issue a uniform invoice for NTD 11,500, and provide it to A-Ming.

The Bureau would like to remind catering industry operators that, if they charge service or cleaning fees to customers and fail to issue a uniform invoice, they may voluntarily file a supplementary tax declaration with the tax authorities and make a supplementary payment to cover the tax amount they failed to declare to the local National Taxation Bureau, tax collection office, or service office. This should be done before the case is reported by an informant or investigated by an investigator appointed by the tax authorities or the Ministry of Finance, as prescribed in Article 48-1 of the Tax Collection Act, in order to avoid penalties (including any incurred interest) and punishment. For further information, please dial the free service hotline 0800-000-321 or visit the Bureau’s website （https://www.ntbk.gov.tw） to make an inquiry online through the national tax smart customer service “National Tax Assistant.”   

Provided by： Sales Tax Section
Contact person：Ms.  Chen            Telephone：（ 07）7256600  Ext. 7360
Written by：Mr. Huang                    Telephone：（07）7256600  Ext. 7351