Restaurant and bar accounting

In a restaurant, a cash purchase of 200,000 lek without a receipt within one month costs about 70,000 lek. Not as a fine, but as a tax paid because that purchase cannot be deducted.

From our daily work with bars and restaurants, we see the same mistake every end of season. The owner believes the problem is undeclared revenue. The real problem is purchasing without an invoice. Undeclared revenue lowers taxes today but increases risk tomorrow. Purchasing without an invoice does both at once, because it raises taxes today and leaves the inventory unaccounted for.

This guide follows a restaurant from the cash register to the balance sheet. What you pay, what you report, on which dates, and the points where our sector differs from any other business.

Read also: Is your business ready for a tax audit?

Natural person or LLC, and what is written in the QKB

The choice of form is not determined by income tax. Until December 31, 2029, annual gross income up to 14,000,000 lekë is taxed at 0%, pursuant to Article 69 of Law No. 29/2023, and the full terms are retained. zero regimen page. So for most small restaurants, both formats result in the same profit.

The decision is made based on responsibility and the plan. Sole Proprietorship It is registered within one day and free of charge, but is liable with its own assets for the obligations of the activity. Limited liability company It separates business assets from personal assets and allows for partners, making it the only structure to use when the business opens with two or three co-founders, when taking on debt, or when a second partner is anticipated.

The object of the activity and the activity code are entered in the QKB at the time of registration and must correspond to what is actually carried out. According to NVE nomenclature, Section I, The restaurant falls under class 56.10 “Restaurants and mobile food service,” the bar and café under class 56.30 “Beverage service activities,” and catering under class 56.21.

This is not a formality. The declared code is used to track the business in risk assessments and inspections, and an establishment serving food with a registration code only as a bar is presented as a different business than it actually is. If the activity expands, the code is updated; it is not left outdated.

The VAT threshold is the figure that really changes a venue's schedule. Registration becomes mandatory when annual turnover exceeds 10,000,000 lek, and the application must be submitted within 15 days of crossing the threshold, in accordance with Article 117 of Law No. 92/2014 and Cabinet Decision No. 953/2014. A forty-seat restaurant exceeds this threshold faster than the owner expects, so turnover is tracked month by month, not at year-end. Details are on the page of registration and deregistration for VAT.

Licenses and permits before the door opens

Registration with the QKB is not enough to open a business. Before the first day, you also need permits that the QKB does not issue, and it is precisely this list that cannot be found compiled anywhere. Here is what has been verified in the text, and it clearly states what needs to be asked about.

Food license: who needs it and who doesn't.

Food-related licenses are listed in Council of Ministers Decision No. 538 of May 26, 2009, as amended. Category II.1 is “Production and/or trade of foods,” and subcategory II.1.A is titled “Production, processing, and wholesale distribution of foods.” The issuing authority is the National Food Authority, and the license is issued indefinitely.

The text of Category II.1 refers to the majority, not to table service. However, in practice there have been contrary requests. A law firm has published a 2019 response from the National Food Authority, according to which entities that are not classified as small businesses must be licensed. This is a secondary source and does not change the text of the decision, but it makes the question necessary before opening.

The practical rule we apply: before registration, we explicitly ask the QKB whether the declared activity brings the entity within category II.1.A, and we keep the answer in writing. This costs one question and saves a fine.

Licenses issued by the municipality, not the QKB.

Three things are required by the municipality, and none of them has a national standard: authorization to occupy public space when tables are placed outside, a permit for the sign and for advertising on the façade, and the establishment's operating hours. The fees and conditions are set by the municipal council, so they vary from one municipality to another and can be found in the decision of the municipality where the establishment is located. The way this layer works is on the page of local tariffs.

In addition to these, hygiene and health certificates for the personnel are also required in practice. We do not issue these with an act number or a fee, because the relevant texts could not be read in full from the official source. When a figure cannot be verified, we do not record it.

Cash register and fiscalization

Every sale is accompanied by tax-invoiced bill. There is no minimum value limit, and it doesn't matter if the customer requests it. The invoice is issued at the time of sale, not at the end of the shift.

We see two mistakes more often than the others. The first is that invoices are issued in bulk at closing. This disrupts the transaction schedule and is immediately apparent in the data received by management. The second is that a canceled order is handled by issuing no invoice at all, instead of issuing a corrective invoice.

When you sell to another business, for example catering to a company, the cash payment limit is 100,000 lek (Article 59, as of January 30, 2026). For individuals the limit is 500,000 lek. Above these amounts, payments must be made through the bank.

The POS terminal becomes mandatory by December 31, 2026 (Article 59(3)). Accommodation establishments had until May 30, 2026, so a guesthouse with a restaurant has already missed the deadline.

Read also: Mandatory POS, deadlines and exemptions

VAT, when you're inside and at what rate

VAT registration Becomes mandatory when turnover exceeds 10,000,000 lek (Article 117). The application must be submitted within 15 days. Voluntary registration is possible for turnover above 5,000,000 lek and remains valid for two years.

The restaurant and bar rate is 20%. This is the sector's most common mistake. Owners hear about the 61% rule and apply it to food service. The 61% rule applies to accommodation and agritourism, and in agritourism it does not cover beverages. If the establishment is both a guesthouse and a restaurant, the two activities are kept separate.

Read also: Tax compliance for accommodation facilities

The sales and purchases register must be submitted by the 11th of the following month. The VAT return and payment are due on the 14th.

How much does a purchase without an invoice cost?

Now add 200,000 lekë of uninvoiced purchases. The deductible VAT doesn't increase, so the liability remains 160,000 lekë and you lose 40,000 lekë. At the same time, that amount is not recognized as an expense, so taxable profit increases by 200,000 lekë and tax increases by 30,000 lekë at a rate of 15%.

Seventy thousand lek in a single month, for a savings that never existed.

Inventory and waste

The restaurant is one of the few businesses where goods spoil, evaporate, burn, and are discarded as a normal part of operations. The law recognizes this, but only within the approved loss norms (Government Decree No. 434/2015). Losses within the norms are recognized as expense. Those above the norm require separate documentation.

A practice that works doesn't require expensive software. Physical inventory is closed at the end of each month, not at the end of each year. Breakages are documented the moment they occur, with a signed report. Staff consumption and client treatments are recorded separately, because otherwise they show up as missing merchandise.

When the inventory doesn't balance and goods are missing without documentation, that discrepancy is recorded on the control as undeclared sales. Therefore, the monthly inventory is not an accounting formality; it is a safeguard.

Employees

The minimum wage is 50,000 lek per month (Government Decree No. 776/2025, effective January 1, 2026). The social security contribution is 27.9%, split into 16.7% for the employer and 11.2% for the employee.

Read also: Wages and contributions: what the employer declares

How much does a waiter cost?

Payroll taxes and the employee's contribution are withheld from the employee's wages and depend on personal deductions, so they are not included in the cost of doing business.

The payroll list must be submitted by the 20th of the following month (Article 65). This applies even if you have only one employee, even if that employee is you as the managing partner.

The most expensive risk remains the undeclared employee. The fine is 200,000 lekë for legal entities and 50,000 lekë for others, per employee (Article 119). With three undeclared seasonal waiters, that amounts to 600,000 lek in a single inspection, before any tax liability on the undeclared wages.

The seasonal employee reports for duty before the first day of work.

Deadlines of the year

Late payment is charged at 0.061 TP3T of the amount per day, up to a maximum of 365 days (Article 114), plus late interest 7.81 TP3T per year (Article 76(3), as of April 11, 2026).

Inspection and fines at a business

A restaurant is overseen by four different authorities: the tax administration for invoices and declarations; the National Food Authority for food safety; the Labor Inspectorate for the employment relationship; and the municipality for space and hours. Here we provide only the figures that we have verified by law.

How much notice do you get before an inspection?

A full tax audit is notified 30 days in advance and a fiscal visit 10 days in advance, in accordance with Article 81 of Law No. 9920/2008. On-site verifications, that is, those in which the inspector goes up to the counter and asks for the latest invoice, are carried out without prior notice, in accordance with Article 81(1). In a restaurant, the third form is the one most frequently encountered.

There is also a window that is rarely used. When the correction is made within 30 days of the inspection notice, the fine is applied at the rate of 50%, pursuant to Article 81. Therefore, the days between the notice and the inspection are not a waiting period; they are working days. The full procedure and the right of appeal are on the page of procedure and appeal.

Fines in figures, verified by article

The table contains only the sanctions of Law No. 9920/2008 that directly affect a venue's day-to-day operations. The sole source of the fine amounts for our entire site is the page of fines and late fees.

Late‐payment interest of 7.81 TP3T per year, from April 11, 2026, is also calculated based on the official table of the General Directorate of Taxation. Penalties for a single obligation do not exceed 1001 TP3T of the obligation itself, pursuant to Article 111, paragraph 5, while late‐payment interest is calculated separately and does not count toward that limit.

The food safety sanctions are set forth in Article 68 of Law No. 9863 of January 28, 2008, “On Food,” as amended. Four of them directly affect a restaurant or bar.

• Food hygiene conditions, Article 23, from 300,000 to 500,000 lek.
• The self-control system, i.e., HACCP, Article 26, paragraphs 1, 2, and 4, from 100,000 to 200,000 lek.
• Food traceability, Article 25, from 100,000 to 200,000 lek.
• Operator's responsibilities for foods that do not meet requirements, Article 24, from 100,000 to 200,000 lek.

Two little-known details. A fine is the primary penalty, while license revocation is a secondary penalty under Article 68, paragraph 4, so both can be imposed together. And the inspector's decision is issued at the inspection site or notified to you within five days of its completion, pursuant to Article 70.

A fifth figure is intentionally omitted here. The fine for operating in an unregistered establishment is linked to Article 19 of the same law, and Article 19 was repealed by Law No. 61/2026 of 30.6.2026, the new Official Controls Law. Therefore, the registration regime for food establishments has changed, and we are reviewing that law before providing any figure for it.

Monthly checklist

It closes once a month, before the 11th. If all ten rows are in order, the month is closed.

• All sales are invoiced and taxed, including home orders.
• Voided invoices have a correcting invoice.
• All purchases have an invoice, and suppliers without an invoice have been listed for replacement.
• No payment over 100,000 lek to a business has been made in cash.
• The physical inventory has been closed and the discrepancy has been explained.
• The inspections include a dated, signed report.
• Staff consumption has been recorded separately from sales.
• All employees of the month, including seasonal workers, are on the payroll.
• The sales and purchases book has been submitted as of the 11th.
• The VAT declaration and payment have been completed as of the 14th.

Three steps for today

1. Open the cash report for the past week and compare the billing schedule with the service schedule. If invoices are piling up at closing, the problem isn't accounting—it's the in-room process.
2. Divide last month's purchase invoices into two groups: invoiced and non-invoiced. Multiply the second group by 35%. That figure is the cost you pay for not requesting an invoice.
3. Conduct a physical inventory today. The difference you find today is information. The difference found at inspection is a fine.

Frequently asked questions

Should I issue an invoice for a 100-lek coffee?

Yes. The requirement for a fiscalized invoice has no minimum value threshold and does not depend on the customer's request.

I buy vegetables from a farmer who doesn't issue an invoice. What should I do?

The registered farmer issues an invoice. If the supplier cannot provide documentation, that purchase is not recognized for either VAT or profit. The price difference rarely covers this cost, so the practical solution is to replace the supplier.

My restaurant is inside a guesthouse. Which regulation applies?

The two activities are separate. Accommodation follows its own reduced rate. Food and beverage services follow 20% VAT, except for agritourism, where the 6% VAT applies to food and not to beverages.

How often should I take inventory?

Once a month is the minimum that works. Annual inventory doesn't protect the business because it doesn't show where and when the discrepancy occurred.

The seasonal employee works only two months. Does it need to be reported?

Yes, and the declaration must be made before the first day of work. A short duration does not create an exception.

Legal basis

• Law No. 92/2014 on value-added tax, as amended by Law No. 80/2025. Registration threshold under Article 117, rates and filing deadlines.
• Law No. 29/2023 on income tax. Rates, deductible expenses, and the payroll list under Article 65.
• Law No. 9920/2008 on tax procedures, as amended by Law No. 79/2025. Cash payments under Article 59, POS terminal under Article 59/3, late payment interest under Article 76(3), fines under Articles 114 and 119.
• Laws No. 7703/1993 and No. 10383/2011 on social and health insurance.
• Government Decree No. 776, dated December 19, 2025, on the minimum wage.
• Government Decree No. 434/2015 on firing rates.

This is the first guide in the series by sector. Next come guesthouses and small accommodations, construction, transportation, and retail trade.