Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In Belgium, the horeca sector plays an important role for the economy as well as for society. However, it faces a lot of difficulties coping with a high rate of bankruptcy and large employers’ contributions. The sector is also known for resorting to a lot of fiscal and social fraud. In order to help out the sector in its difficulties and to clean it up, the government has, thanks to an agreement with the European Union, dropped the VAT rates from 21 % to 12 % on food services consumed within the restaurants. In return, the horeca sector has accepted to strive against fraud. So, on January 1st 2016, the monitored cash register was introduced in the food industry. Through this device, the fiscal authorities will be given a way to control the actual activities of the restaurants.

The main objective of this master thesis is to analyze the efficiency of the recently introduced monitored cash register. On the one hand, we will have a view on the technical efficiency of such a tool. On the other hand, we will look at the impact of this device on the targeted group in terms of change in their management and adaptation but also have a look at the first results. In order to address this topic, we have collected qualitative information amongst four types of actors: restaurant owners, cash register distributors, the Walloon horeca Federation and the Federal Public Service Finance.

The main findings show that, up to now, no efficient technical ways have been set up on the Belgian market to get around the black box. However, one way to get around it, is to not register at all some of the clients’ consumptions. Although recent figures show a progress concerning employment and declaration of incomes and employees, restaurant owners are mitigated in the way they will manage the introduction of this antifraud tool. Some have decided to get rid of fraud, take up prices and lower the opening hours. Others claim they won’t change the way they work and risk to get sanctioned.

horeca --- fiscal fraud --- social fraud --- monitored cash register --- efficiency --- black box --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Comptabilité & audit

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Since the creation of the Belgian social law in the 19th century, the labor market has been through quite a lot of changes, be it from a legal perspective, in term of social security or from a work organization point of view. Besides, for the past few years, the workers’ mentality has been shifting. Indeed, today’s workers aspire to higher levels of autonomy, they seek more respect for the work they deliver and wish to manage themselves their work schedule.
The binary split of status between the self-employed workers and employees has nevertheless remained unchanged since the 19th century. The split between these two work statuses for reasons such as large technological progresses (IT, homeworking, robotics, etc.) and economical imperatives (work flexibility, competition) is not as straightforward as before anymore, and could even represent a threat to innovation.
Through the model they developed, Partena Professional wishes to solve this structural change observed on the labor market.
This thesis will elaborate on the status of the “self-governing” workers as well as the grey area laying in between the status of the self-employed workers and the employees. Simultaneously, this thesis will shed light on what has been put in place as of today by other foreign countries regarding their legal framework. For example, through “TRADE”, a Spanish self-employed worker becomes economically dependent if more than 75% of his revenues are generated from one single stream. In Italy, the status of “Pare-Subordonis” is given to small self-employed workers who then benefit from a superior social security. In France, part-time self-employed workers are granted favorable social security conditions in order to help them become self-employed on a full-time basis.
The insights collected from specialists in various fields (member of the Belgian government, trade unions or from the academic world) about the model developed by Partena Professional do not only give a good overview of Partena’s model, but have created room for discussion on legal topics such as working hours, the employee’s autonomy or the self-employed worker’s social security.

Sciences économiques & de gestion > Multidisciplinaire, généralités & autres