BFH Rules Against Higher Menu Item Price Than Individual Sale Price in Fast Food Chains

• BFH ruled that a pricing method for discount menus leading to a higher price for a menu item than its individual sale price is inappropriate.
• Two GmbHs operated fast-food franchises selling discount menus for off-premises consumption.
• The sale of drinks is taxed at 19 percent and food at 7 percent.
• Since July 2014, the “Food-and-Paper” method was used to allocate menu prices based on cost of goods.
• This method typically results in lower tax than allocation by individual sale prices.
• The tax office deemed the method inappropriate, while the tax court found it acceptable.
• BFH disagreed with the tax court, stating the method is not appropriate if it results in a menu item price exceeding its individual sale price.
• BFH emphasized that a discounted menu item should not be priced higher than its individual sale price.
• A similar method was also rejected by BFH in a related case.

Source: blogs.pwc.de

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

---

---