Final Word from Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Dep. Finance Minister Alena Schillerová told Czech Radio last week that tips will of course be subject to the new EET online sales-reporting system, without exception. Her boss, Andrej Babiš, then declared precisely the opposite yesterday, saying that as long as tips are the income of the wait staff and not the owner, they won't be subject to EET. How can two people in the same chain of command interpret the law so differently? Easy, one of them is making up the law as he goes. Babiš launched EET with the goal of getting information on his competitors, not to increase tax revenue, and because of this, he didn't think the actual process through. He forgot the tip. He'll run into the same problem again if he tries to launch his much-vaunted EET lotteries. People will quickly figure out that they can double their chances of winning by demanding a receipt for the tip as well. What will Babiš say to appease them? "Of course tips are subject to EET." [Czech Republic drawing deputy Radiožurnál]
Glossary of difficult words
cheapster (informal) - someone who is cheap; someone who spends as little money as possible;
wait/waiting staff - waiters, waitresses and other service employees of a restaurant;
vaunted - boasted about;
to figure out - to discover;
to appease - to pacify or placate (someone) by acceding to his or her demands.