Small Businesses Face Uncertain Future
A planned reduction of the food sales tax to 7% has come too late for small restaurateurs, according to Datev’s Chief Economist, Timm Bönke, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The planned tax cut is expected to benefit the hospitality industry as a whole, but the damage already inflicted on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may be irreparable.
A Datev analysis reveals that the real sales of the gastronomic middle class have decreased by over 10% since January 2024, with a stabilization only in recent times. The business of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has developed significantly worse than the overall hospitality industry.
“The structure in the restaurant industry is changing: while real sales were slightly declining overall, they broke down for SMEs in early 2024” said Robert Mayr, Datev’s Chairman of the Board.
Restaurant chains and system restaurateurs were able to absorb the higher sales tax, while smaller operators saw their business collapse. Surveys show that the hospitality industry has been complaining increasingly about a lack of demand since January 2024, with complaints about a lack of staff decreasing in significance.
The costs of SMEs in the hospitality industry have risen by 6% from January 2023 to December 2024, with personnel costs standing out at almost 10% growth. In contrast, the companies’ profits, measured by preliminary monthly results, have decreased by around 25%. These figures are based on the anonymous evaluation of the monthly business data of around 40,000 mid-sized companies in the restaurant industry, often with up to ten employees, by Datev, the IT service provider for the tax consulting professions.