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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