The main goal of this paper is to understand the evolution of taxation in the accommodation and restaurant industry. In particular, it has three objectives: (1) to study how it has been occurring the taxation of this sector in Portugal, (2) to know if Portuguese legislators adopted tax measures specific to this economic area, and (3) to understand what post-COVID-19 perspectives are in the sector of the fiscal domain. For this purpose, business and tax law of Portugal were investigated. The results show that the Portuguese tax legislator hasn't been paying attention to the lodging and restaurant sector. There were some changes in the income and consumption tax domain in the last 10 years underpinned by the will to increase investment and to control tax avoidance, but hardly were introduced tax measures to help this business area in the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there was another kind of economic financial support given by the Portuguese government, in the fiscal domain, the IVAucher measure was introduced.
TopIntroduction
Portugal is characterized by the dependency in the touristic activity, from which the accommodation and restaurant activities cannot be dissociated. Thus, tourism is a strategic economic activity for the country’s economic and social development, particularly for employment and export growth (Turismo de Portugal, 2017). Tourism business area constitutes a mechanism to economic development of several countries (Fernández & Rivero, 2010). It is comprehensible that the restrictions imposed by the need of control of the pandemic situation evolution of COVID-19 have been embarrassing the business driving. The limitation to the functioning of the establishments, and the adaptation to the pandemic rules imposed by the Government have been conditioning the management decisions. In demanding moments such as the ones the sector has been going through, the relevance of public measures to the stimulus to the development of the activity should not neglect, nevertheless, its enjoyment sometimes can be faced as excessive dependency to the financial support.
According to the sectorial statistical synthesis prepared by the Gabinete de Estratégia do Ministério da Economia e Transição Digital, the accommodation and restaurant sectors assume a significant weight between the non-financial companies' area1. Considering the same source:
- 1.
9% of the total number of entities, with successive growth since 2007.
- 2.
9.4% of the total number of employees, with successive growth since 2007.
- 3.
3.9% of the total turnover, with successive growth since 2007.
- 4.
6.6% of total gross value added, with successive growth since 2007.
- 5.
8.6% of total gross capital formation, with successive growth since 2007.
Considering the sector’s relevance, important economic decisions have been made internationally as an answer to the pandemic crisis. European Union approved the NextGenerationEU instrument2, and it has been essential to the combat of the harmful consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. This instrument has the goal of the economies’ transformation of the European Union's states, through measures such as the increase of employment and the reinforcing of decarbonization and digitization. The NextGenerationEU integrates the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, making available financial resources to finance reforms and investments in the EU Member States. This financial support integrates loans and grants, and it can be applied until 2026.
Taking into consideration the privileged economic relationship between the Iberian countries, Portugal and Spain, the crisis allowed the development of tax agreements relevant to the employees, and it includes the touristic sector workers. The status of the cross-border worker was approved, providing benefits to that kind of employees, as (1) the access to the public services in both countries, (2) the social security recognition in both countries, (3) the launch of joint programs to attract investment and workers to cross-border areas.
It is why questions related to COVID-19 and tourism sector has been researched by Portuguese scholars. Oliveira (2020) highlighted the most relevant measures to tackle the effects of pandemic crisis on credit contracts. Machado, et al. (2020) analyse the communication strategies used by the sector to combat the negative effects of Covid-19 available on social networks, the research analyses Portugal and Brazil. Lopes et al. (2021) examine the tourism employees characteristics that make them more vulnerable or immune to the unemployment. Marques et al. (2021) research the tourism preference in the summer of 2020. Almeida and Silva (2020) evaluate the COVID-19 impact on tourism sustainability.