Tip, to amount to maximum of 15 pct of consumption value, regulated by Chamber of Deputies

The Chamber of Deputies adopted, on Tuesday, as a decision-making body, the draft law regulating the tip, establishing that its level will be a maximum of 15 percent of the bill, it will be possible to pay it by card and it will be taxed, told Agerpres.

As many as 189 votes "in favor", 34 "against" and 4 abstentions were registered.

Tipping is understood as any amount of money voluntarily offered by the customer, in addition to the value of the goods delivered or the services provided by economic operators who carry out activities corresponding to CAEN codes: 5610 - "Restaurants", 5630 - "Bars and other beverage serving activities".

The tip cannot be assimilated, from the point of view of VAT, to a delivery of goods or a provision of services.

For economic operators, the tip collected from customers is shown on the tax receipt, regardless of the method of collection.

Economic operators have the obligation to hand the customer a bill, prior to the issuance of the tax receipt, in which there are sections intended for the customer to choose the level of tip offered, between 0 pct and 15 pct of the consumption value. The bill must also contain another column, in which the customer can enter the amount offered as a tip, in absolute value, if he opts for this way of determining the value of the tip.

It is forbidden for economic operators to condition, in any form, the delivery of goods or the provision of services on the granting of a tip.

By way of exception, for the delivery of the products to the customers' homes, economic operators are not obliged to record the tip on the tax receipt.

The tip is shown separately on the same tax receipt as the delivered goods/the rendered services and is entered in the database of the electronic fiscal device machines in the form of an item, with the name "tip".

The amounts derived from tip collection by employees are qualified as income from other sources and are subject to the fiscal regime provided for by Title IV - Chapter. X from Law no. 227/2015, with the provisions of Title V - Mandatory social contributions - from the same normative act not being applicable to them. The income tax owed by the employee is withheld at the source when the tip is distributed by the income payers and is paid to the state budget, according to art. 115 of the Fiscal Code. These amounts cannot be reclassified for tax purposes as wage income or assimilated to wages.

The provisions of this law enter into force on January 1, 2023.