Mehrwertsteuersenkung: Gewerkschaft: Restaurantbesuche nicht günstiger geworden

A new survey reveals that most diners are not noticing the recent reduction in the value-added tax on restaurant meals. The Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG) stated that "the study provides no indication that the value-added tax cut was passed on to consumers on a meaningful scale." Average prices actually increased by 0.5 percent, according to the NGG.

The tax rate was reduced from 19 percent to 7 percent at the beginning of the year. The consultancy firm wmp consult evaluated the prices of 180,000 dishes in over 12,000 restaurants on behalf of the NGG, with the data collected in October 2025, before the reduction, and in February and March of this year. In most cases, the prices remained unchanged.

Eight percent of the analyzed dishes had higher prices, while around one percent had lower prices. NGG President Guido Zeitler said that the government aimed to relieve consumers with the value-added tax reduction, but "nothing has reached the consumers." A larger evaluation of dishes by the data specialist Meoton had already found in March that the value-added tax cut had primarily prevented prices from rising further.

Discounts were also observed, but only to a very limited extent. Many restaurant owners had already announced before the value-added tax reduction that it would be used to offset the significantly increased costs of the businesses over the past years. Many employees near the limit of their ability to work. For improving working conditions for the approximately 2 million employees in the sector, the savings were not utilized by the unions.

A survey of employees found that many of them were severely overworked. "Seventy-five percent of employees cannot sufficiently relax after long working days. Seventy-nine percent report on short-term changes in the service plan that make the compatibility of work, family, and private life more difficult," the NGG reported. The survey was conducted between June and July of this year, involving more than 2,100 employees from the hotel industry, as well as system and operational gastronomy.