I'm a simple emigrant, and I was kicked out of the cafe

One summer we were out walking with a friend and wanted to eat ice cream. The cafe was basically a kiosk with wooden tables and benches outside. It was at the entrance to the park, and we decided not to sit down, just buy a couple scoops of ice cream and go. We bought, and then we saw that there was a tower right at the park entrance. Well, we weren't going to haul our ice cream up the stairs. We changed our minds, in short, and sat down. And as soon as we sat, everyone involved in running this cafe in turn flocked over to us. The granddaughter for grandma, grandma for grandpa. I can't remember exactly, but I think even the neighbor's dog came to bark at us. They were just yelling as if crazy, even though there were empty tables. The scene lasted at most a couple of minutes, but it felt like three hours, and somehow among all that shouting I managed to figure out that take-away ice cream is sold at a different price than ice cream in the restaurant. That is, by sitting down we had basically put them under the gallows and were we not tax inspectors? Well, we, of course, left. And I understand that they were right, but the sting, to put it mildly, remained. Because what matters is not what they said, but how they did it. 😎 The thing is that in Germany there is different taxation for selling food and for providing catering services. The VAT rate on food as a product is a mere 7%, and deliveries fall into this group. Whereas VAT on catering services, when there are tables, service, etc., is a full 19%. Therefore in Germany even a Rum Baba can't be sold so easily. I can see in your eyes the question of why you usually see the same prices. I answer: there are several options as to how and why this is done. First, some goods are always treated as sale, for example ready-made sandwiches or pastries in boxes or bottled drinks. Second, some chains initially calculate an average price so the difference in taxes is spread over the entire volume of sales. Therefore, for example, at McDonald's you always see one price. Third, cafés simply don't want to bother customers with different prices and constantly explain this duality, and set a single price, simply earning a bit less if you dine in and a bit more if you take away. So it's all a scam to boost their figures. In fact, legally the till still splits sales into different tax rates, if the cafe isn't cheating, of course. Have you ever found yourself in such a situation? #Ordnung #useful #money