Draft bill makes tips included in checks and payable with cards

The Romanian Parliament adopted a new draft bill that obliges businesses like restaurants and bars to include a section indicating the tip in every check that is handed to customers. The level of the tip can be between 0 and 15% of the total cost of the check.

The bill also says that the check must contain another column where the customer can write the amount offered as a tip if he or she does not want to indicate a specific percentage. In the end, the tip will be marked on the same tax receipt as the goods delivered/services rendered and entered in the cash register database.

Restaurants and bars also have to establish internally the procedure and method of distribution to employees of the amounts from tip collection, according to Biziday. The law labels tips as “income from other sources,” different from salaries and the employer’s expenses, and therefore excepted from social and health contributions and the VAT.

Voices in the opposition say that the measure is intended to tax tips and bring more funds to a hemorrhaging state budget. They also say that the draft law inexplicably caps tips to 15%.

“We are required not to tip more than 15%. That's what the members of the parliamentary majority decided. If you want to give more, you will have to give it in cash, because in the law - and we had an amendment to remove this - it says that the tip will be between 0 and 15%,” former USR economy minister Claudiu Năsui told B1.

(Photo source:Sasithorn Phuapankasemsuk | Dreamstime.com)