Gastronomy: Visits to restaurants are not cheaper despite tax cuts

Gastronomy Visits to restaurants have apparently not become cheaper despite tax cuts

Taxes down, prices not: Although the VAT on restaurant food has been drastically reduced, prices have actually risen slightly. According to a study, neither guests nor employees benefit from the measure.

The VAT reduction in the catering industry promised guests cheaper restaurant visits, but they don't notice anything. This was the result of an investigation by the Food-Pleasure-Gastronomy Union (NGG).

The tax was reduced from 19 percent to 7 percent at the turn of the year. “The study provides no evidence that the VAT reduction was passed on to consumers to any significant extent,” explained the union. “On average, prices even increased by 0.5 percent.”

The consulting company wmp consult evaluated the prices of 180,000 dishes in more than 12,000 restaurants nationwide on behalf of the NGG. The survey therefore took place in October 2025 - before the reduction - as well as in February and March of this year.

Prices remain unchanged in most cases

In nine out of ten dishes examined, the prices remained unchanged. Prices rose in 8 percent and fell in around 1 percent.

“The federal government also wanted to reduce the burden on guests with the VAT reduction,” said NGG chairman Guido Zeitler. “In fact, none of this reached consumers.”

Many restaurateurs had already announced before the VAT reduction that they would primarily use this to offset the sharp rise in costs for their businesses in recent years.

Better working conditions for that? None

From the union's perspective, the savings were not used to improve working conditions for the industry's approximately 2 million employees. According to the union, a survey of employees showed that many of them were severely overworked.

»Three quarters of employees cannot recover sufficiently after long working days. 79 percent report short-term roster changes that make it difficult to combine work, family and private life," said the NGG. More than 2,100 employees from the hotel industry as well as system and company catering were surveyed between June and July of this year.