What are duties?

Duties are financial contributions that businesses must pay to the state in connection with the sale of certain products and services. In the restaurant and café industry, these may be packaging duties, sugar duties or environmental duties. Duties differ from VAT in that they are not necessarily charged as a percentage of the sales price but can instead be set as a fixed amount per unit or weight. Duties are also typically aimed at specific products – such as soft drinks, alcohol or takeaway packaging.

For a restaurateur it is important to know which duties apply to your products, both to price correctly for customers and to settle correctly with the tax authorities. Duties must be recorded precisely and separately from both the sales price and VAT – both when you issue an invoice and when you submit VAT and duty returns.

An example from a café

A café sells soft drinks to go in plastic bottles. The bottles are subject to an environmental duty and possibly also a sugar duty. If the soft drink costs €3.00 excl. VAT and there is a duty of €0.10 per unit, the till must record this correctly: €3.00 for the sale, €0.10 as duty, and VAT at the applicable rate on top. Which duties exist, and whether VAT is charged on them, differs from country to country. This ensures the business meets its obligations correctly and can report the right amounts later.

Why is it important to know about duties in a POS system?

When you use a POS system in your restaurant or café, handling duties correctly is crucial. The system must be able to separate the duty from the product's sales price and handle it separately in the bookkeeping. This affects accounting, stock management and, not least, the customer's receipt. That way you avoid breaking the law and ensure taxes and duties are settled correctly with the authorities – something every business benefits from.

How does the Flexybox system handle duties?

The Flexybox POS system lets you set up and automatically handle different types of duties depending on the type of product. You can register duties as fixed amounts on selected products – for example packaging duty on takeaway products. The system also ensures that duties are included in sales reports and clearly separated from the sales price, fees and VAT. This makes it easier for you to keep correct books and comply with legislation.

Frequently asked questions

VAT is a general consumption tax on most goods and services, while duties are specific charges on selected products such as tobacco, sugar or plastic packaging.

Yes, in most cases duties must appear either as part of the price or as a separate line on the receipt, depending on the rules for the specific duty.

Some duties may be deductible, while others are not. It depends on the type of duty and the business's VAT status – talk to your accountant about it.

Yes, Flexybox can manage several types of duties at the same time, and you can set them up per product so the duties are handled automatically with every sale.