Why the French social security agency (Urssaf) is demanding €14,000 from a restaurant owner for having lunch in his own establishment.
Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of Public Action and Accounts, denounced the situation on Twitter as “absurd” and the rule as “obsolete” for restaurant owners.
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A hefty bill that leaves a bitter taste. Arnaud Bloquel, a chef who runs two gourmet restaurants in Saint-François, Guadeloupe, was forced by the French social security and family allowance collection agency (Urssaf) to pay €14,000 for failing to declare that he had lunch… in his own establishment.
It all started in April 2018, when an Urssaf official came for an audit and asked him where he had lunch every day. For Arnaud Bloquel, the answer seems obvious because, like many restaurant owners, “I eat in my restaurant, since I spend my days there,” he told the trade publication lhotellerie-restaurant.fr.
The hammer blow came soon after. Based on the average spend per diner at the establishment, amounting to €107 per meal, and three years of undeclared daily lunches, the French social security agency (Urssaf) is demanding €14,000 from Arnaud Bloquel, the majority shareholder and manager of the establishment. When contacted by Le Figaro, Urssaf stated that it does not comment “on the individual situations of our contributors.”
For Sophie Petroussenko, lawyer for the Union of Trades and Industries in the Hotel and Catering Sector (UMIH), this situation, “neither new nor unique,” remains entirely arbitrary and open to criticism. First, she explains, “restaurants that provide meals to their employees or managers are granting them a benefit in kind that they must declare,” and which is subject to social security contributions and income tax.
However, restaurant employees and managers can choose to eat different meals than those served to customers or consume only simpler foods. This is precisely what the “Chef of the Year 2019” in the prestigious Gault & Millau culinary guide for the French West Indies and French Guiana defended himself against: “I reserve the premium ingredients for the customers and eat pasta or simple, inexpensive dishes, like the rest of my team.”
But since their meals eaten at their workplace are considered benefits in kind, failing to declare them, whether intentionally or through oversight, is punishable by penalties from the French social security agency (Urssaf) and the French Treasury.
The amount owed can quickly escalate, as in the case of Arnaud Bloquel, where the French social security agency (Urssaf) assessed it “not at the actual cost of the meal taken by the self-employed manager for the company, but at the price of the cheapest menu item or the average price offered to customers,” adds Sophie Petroussenko. When you run a gourmet restaurant, even if the Urssaf uses the least expensive menu items, this amount can logically become quite high…
Especially since this “arbitrary” adjustment can sometimes be compounded by late payment penalties and potential surcharges for “bad faith in not having declared these sums on time,” continues the Parisian lawyer, who is calling for a review of the regulations.
An “absurd” situation for Gérald Darmanin
For the woman who has been defending the CHR sector (for cafes, hotels and restaurants) for more than twenty years, the sanctioning of Arnaud Bloquel raises the issue of a “real inequality of treatment between employees and managers”, when all generally have lunch in the same establishment, and do not consume the same dishes as the customers.
“Yet, even in this case, the URSSAF (French social security agency) adjustment is calculated based on the number of days the establishment is open and the price of the lowest-priced meal sold to a customer,” laments Sophie Petroussenko. She argues that this method of calculation “ignores the principle that the business owner is not a customer, and that they necessarily make a profit on a meal served to a customer, a profit they cannot be expected to make on a meal they serve themselves in their own restaurant!”
Sophie Petroussenko nevertheless welcomes the reaction on Monday, October 21, from the Minister of Public Action and Accounts, Gérald Darmanin, who shared on Twitter his desire to change an “absurd” situation and an “obsolete” rule. He called on the URSSAF to “reconsider the case of the head chef” and promised to discuss it with Agnès Buzyn, the current Minister of Solidarity and Health.
Arnaud Bloquel, who said he was “very happy” with the ministerial support, has since been contacted again by the Ursaff which must review its decision, in particular through the principle of the right to make a mistake.