If you operate a restaurant or cab business, you may be required to meet your obligations under the mandatory billing measures.
What are your obligations if you are subject to mandatory billing measures?
- You must prepare an invoice containing the required information and submit it to the customer without delay;
- You must keep a copy of the invoice on paper or in electronic format.
For GST/QST registrants (non-exhaustive list)
- You must use a certified sales recording system (SRS);
- You must automatically transmit information to Revenu Québec;
- You must provide the customer with an invoice produced on an SRS, including all required information.
Liability – Restaurant sector
You are subject to mandatory billing measures if you are in one of the following situations :
- You operate a catering business;
- You are a person who ordinarily makes taxable supplies of property or services in (or at or near) a restaurant establishment where alcoholic beverages are offered under a bar permit.
- You make a taxable supply of an admission, or of another good or another service (for example, a checkroom service) in (or at or near) a restaurant establishment that holds a bar permit authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises and issued under the Act respecting liquor permits..
What is a “restaurant establishment”?
Revenu Québec’s position is that a restaurant establishment means the following:
- a place laid out to ordinarily provide, for consideration, meals for consumption on the premises (such as a restaurant, bar, resto-bar or banquet hall), or a place where meals are provided, for consideration, for consumption off the premises (such as a takeout counter, dairy bar, pizzeria, or rotisserie), including places situated in amusement parks, recreational parks, water parks, animal parks, zoological gardens, aquariums, or other similar places;
- a place where a caterer carries on a business;
- a food truck (this does not include a trailer that can be moved without the use of a truck or motor vehicle or a mobile canteen).
However, some places are not considered to be restaurant establishments, such as :
- a place where 90% or more of the supplies of meals are tax-exempt sales;
- a place reserved exclusively for company staff, where meals are provided;
- a place that is a mobile vehicle in which meals are provided (such as a mobile canteen, an airplane, a ship or a train), except for food trucks;
- a place where meals are provided, for consideration, to be consumed exclusively (90% or more) in the stands, seats, or area reserved for the clients of a cinema, a theatre, an amphitheatre, a racetrack, an arena, a stadium, a sports centre, or any other similar place, except in the case of a cinema, theatre, or other similar place, if the sales made in that place are mainly supplies of:
– meals, or,
– property or services for which part of the sale relates to a meal or authorizes clients to receive a meal or a discount on the price of a meal; - a place where meals for consumption elsewhere than on the premises are provided for consideration and that is a butcher’s shop, bakery, pastry shop, fish shop, grocery store or similar business;
- a place that is laid out to ordinarily provide, for consideration, meals for consumption on the premises, that is integrated into the business premises of another business of the operator that is not a restaurant establishment, and that is designed in such a way that fewer than 20 people can consume meals on the premises simultaneously (for example, a small restaurant in a hotel, a museum or a store).
If you operate a tourist lodging establishment, special rules may apply depending on your situation and the conditions of the lodging offered (e.g. self-serve breakfast or not, mandatory breakfast included or not, number of seats in a designated area for the consumption of meals, offer of catering service or not, etc.).
Revenu Québec’s position is that if you operate a business that offers catering services, the place where you operate your business is considered a restaurant establishment in the following cases:
- Catering services are available for banquets, cocktails, or special occasions, such as weddings, cocktail parties, private receptions, anniversaries, business events or business meetings.
- The catering service is offered in a grocery store, bakery, pastry shop, or similar business, regardless of whether catering is the business’s principal activity.
There are several criteria to determine whether your company offers a catering service.
Special situations also require special attention, such as when the establishment is located in a theme park or similar location, when you hold an event permit authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages, or if you operate a winery, cidery, distillery or other alcohol or spirits manufacturing business that sells and serves alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises.
Liability – Paid passenger transport sector
The term “taxi business” refers to a business carried on in Quebec that provides a passenger transportation service:
- by taxi or any other similar vehicle, at rates set by the Act respecting remunerated passenger transportation by automobile;
- by motor vehicle, for an agreed price, on the territory of a municipality and in the vicinity, if the transportation is organized or coordinated through a digital platform or an electronic system (such as Uber).
However, the term “taxi business” does not refer to:
- the part of the business that does not involve making taxable supplies;
- the part of the business that involves offering guided tours to tourists or providing school transportation services for primary or secondary school students..
There is no minimum threshold to meet, and obligations begin with the first run.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need help determining whether you are subject to mandatory billing measures, or if you want to know what your obligations are.
