Black box next to the till

What did the government think? To clamp down on the on-trade industry’s practice of getting a bit of money under the table, the Belgian government decided that from 1 January 2014 Belgian pubs and restaurants need to have electronic cash registers (“black boxes”), which record all incomes. Smaller outlets have been given until the end of 2015 to put these boxes into place.

Estimates say that about a third of the on-trade sector’s income is unrecorded.

But market observers argue that it was the “dirty money” which often paid for jobs in the sector. Researchers predict that between 13,000 and 21,000 jobs could be lost through lay-offs and bankruptcies over the next two years if café owners and restaurateurs have to declare their actual incomes.

In Belgium, the horeca sector (that’s hotels, restaurants and cafés) contributes about 2.6 percent to GDP.

Belgian brewers are a bit concerned, too. If cafés continue to close, what will happen to beer consumption? 48 percent of all beer in Belgium is consumed in the on-trade.