Hospitality

Split Vat rate for struggling restaurants ‘won’t be considered’ by government

A spate of recent closures have spurred calls for a lower Vat rate to be applied to restaurants but the government has no plans to make such a move

Catherine Martin, the tourism minister, previously indicated that the government would examine decoupling the Vat between food and accommodation. Picture: Norma Burke

The government has no plans to split the Vat rate to help struggling restaurants, the Business Post understands.

The hospitality Vat rate was hiked back up to 13.5 per cent from the pandemic era 9 per cent last September.

Calls for the rate to be split between accommodation and food services and lowered for restaurants have been growing in recent weeks, as a wave of restaurant closures have highlighted major issues in the sector.

Speaking ...