One of the odd things that an American in Germany comes to notice after a while....especially if he buys ice cream...is that it's a cash transaction. You get the ice cream you desire....you pay cash....and you walk away, with no receipt. There's hardly a profession in Germany, where you pay and you don't get a receipt. But with the ice cream folks....it's fairly good odds....no receipt unless you sit down and have a coffee or drink with the ice cream.
Well....it's come out in the German finance news today, that the tax folks are well versed into this problem. They think there's TEN BILLION Euro of lost revenue generated in Germany....via the lack of no receipt.
Fixing this? Well, they've hinted to a great extent that the ice cream 'mafia' folks need to get a system (already marketed) and do cash on the spot transactions with a receipt printed out. Forcing the issue? They say the law is already on the books. Course, until you start arresting ice cream guys left and right....there's not much that will occur.
Ten billion? Yeah.....that's a lot of income that just slides by.
From early spring to late summer, I figure I probably buy around two dozen ice creams....all cash of course. So, yeah, I'm contributing to the black market of ice cream in Germany. And frankly, it's pretty good black market ice cream....if you ask me.
No comments:
Post a Comment