Questions about tax planning for catering companies

1. Reasonably avoid business tax For the catering industry, business tax is the main tax expenditure and must be paid regardless of the company's profits or losses.

The amount of business tax collected is calculated based on the taxpayer's turnover multiplied by the business tax rate. The business tax rate for the catering industry is a fixed tax rate of 5%, so the only way to reasonably avoid taxes is to start with the turnover.

The turnover has to be confirmed, and failure to confirm it is an act of tax evasion. Therefore, enterprises should delay the recognition of operating income as much as possible based on their actual circumstances.

According to Article 9 of the "Interim Regulations of the People's Republic of China and the State on Business Tax", the time when the tax liability for business tax occurs is the day when the taxpayer receives the business payment or obtains the receipt of the income payment.

The reality of catering operations is that there is very little cash consumption and mostly contract consumption. Operators often receive business payments several months or even longer after the operating income is achieved. Therefore, catering companies can wait until The customer only goes to the tax authority to collect the purchase invoice (declares and pays tax) when he agrees to pay, thereby reducing the tax burden by delaying tax payment.

For example, a restaurant signed an order for 10,000 yuan in May. According to the accounting standards for enterprises, this 10,000 yuan is the operating income realized in that month and must be recorded in the books. A business tax of 500 yuan should be paid in May.

If the accounting time is postponed and the operating income is confirmed in the month when the payment is received, the tax payment can be postponed, achieving the purpose of delaying the tax payment time and reducing the tax burden.

2. Reasonably avoid corporate income tax Corporate income tax is a tax levied on enterprise production and operation income and other income.

The severity and amount directly affect the formation of after-tax net profit, are related to the vital interests of the enterprise, and are the focus of tax planning.

(1) Using full expenditures of costs and expenses for reasonable tax avoidance. Enterprises using cost and expense accounting for reasonable tax avoidance refer to a series of legal requirements such as cost accounting methods, calculation procedures, and expense allocation stipulated by the state. Internal accounting activities of enterprises.

The amount of income tax payable by an enterprise is calculated based on the taxable income and the tax rate stipulated in the tax law.

With a given tax rate, the amount of income tax payable by a company depends on the amount of taxable income.

The taxable income is calculated by deducting the costs, expenses, taxes and losses related to the income from the total income of the enterprise.

It can be seen that when the income is given, try to increase the items that are allowed to be deducted, that is, on the premise of complying with the financial accounting standards and tax system regulations, fully accounting for the items that are allowed to be deducted that occur in the enterprise will inevitably lead to This will greatly reduce the amount of taxable income, ultimately reducing the basis for calculating corporate income tax and achieving the purpose of reducing the tax burden.

The costs and expenses of the catering industry mainly include depreciation of fixed assets (lease fees), amortization of equipment damage, labor wages, and the raw materials of the fuel and power industry are mainly poultry, livestock, vegetables and other agricultural and sideline products, For condiments, except for the invoices that can be obtained when purchasing condiments, most other raw materials are purchased from the market. It is difficult to obtain formal tax invoices and cannot be deducted as costs.

It is recommended that for some large hotels, raw materials should be purchased in supermarkets and chain stores as much as possible to obtain deductible purchase invoices and increase costs.

The tax burden can also be reduced by shortening the depreciation life of fixed assets, choosing the amortization method for equipment damage, and increasing the amortization amount of upfront expenses.

For example, if a hotel purchases fixed assets such as refrigerators and air conditioners for 50,000 yuan at a time, depreciation must be accrued within 10 years based on the normal service life of the refrigerator and air conditioner, and 5,000 yuan will be accrued every year. If the depreciation is If the service life is shortened to 2 years, depreciation will be calculated at RMB 25,000 per year.

In the first two years after the fixed assets are put into use, an additional 20,000 yuan will be included in the annual expenses. If calculated based on the income tax rate of 33%, the income tax will be reduced by 6,600 yuan per year.

Although the total amount of income tax paid over ten years is the same in both cases, the upfront tax burden is reduced by delaying tax payment.

Accordingly, the same effect can be achieved by using the one-time amortization method to amortize low-value consumables such as appliances.

(2) Use financing plans to reasonably avoid taxes. Generally speaking, the funds required by the catering industry are mainly self-owned funds and loans from financial institutions, and using loans is a way to reduce the tax burden and reasonably avoid part of the tax. way.

Since the owner and occupier of the enterprise's own funds are one, it is difficult to allocate and offset taxes, and the purpose of tax avoidance cannot be achieved.

As a financial expense, interest payments on loans can be deducted from pre-tax profits, thereby reducing taxable income and ultimately avoiding tax.

3. Use tax incentives to reasonably avoid taxes. There are many preferential tax exemption policies in our country’s tax system, which are both conditions and incentives for tax avoidance.

According to the provisions of the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation on Tax Policy Issues Concerning the Re-employment of Laid-off and Unemployed Personnel" (Caishui [2002] No. 208) and other documents, newly established service-oriented enterprises (except for the advertising industry , saunas, massages, Internet cafes, oxygen bars) that recruit laid-off and unemployed people to account for more than 30% (inclusive of 30%) of the total number of employees in that year, they will be exempted from business tax, urban construction tax, education surcharge and corporate income tax for three years.

If the number of laid-off and unemployed persons employed is less than 30% of the total number of employees, the corporate income tax will be reduced based on the calculated reduction ratio within three years.

Tax reduction ratio = (laid-off and unemployed persons recruited by the enterprise in the current year/total number of employees of the enterprise × 100%) × 2.

Therefore, the catering industry should consider recruiting a certain number of laid-off workers. On the one hand, laid-off workers are eager to find jobs, which can reduce part of the labor costs and reduce corporate income tax. On the other hand, tax incentives can be used to reduce corporate comprehensive taxes. Both can achieve the purpose of reasonable tax avoidance.

Use tax thresholds to avoid taxes.

my country’s tax law stipulates that some self-employed households whose monthly sales or service income do not reach the prescribed threshold are exempted from business tax and income tax.

Therefore, for some small restaurants, service income should be controlled below the threshold through legal means as much as possible in order to avoid taxes.

Take advantage of preferential tax rates to avoid taxes.

As mentioned above, different scales of enterprises have different tax rates when levying corporate income tax. Therefore, the catering industry should not blindly expand its business scale and should consider the local environment, population, and consumption. Level and other circumstances, choose the critical point scale (such as the annual taxable income of 30,000 yuan or the annual taxable income of 100,000 yuan) to enjoy preferential tax rates and achieve the purpose of reasonable tax avoidance