the pilot implementation measures for changing business tax to value-added tax has clearly stipulated that the tax rate of general taxpayers in the catering industry is 6%, while the comprehensive tax rate applicable to small-scale taxpayers is 3%.

1. Small-scale taxpayers

From the perspective of turnover, many catering enterprises are small-scale taxpayers at present. This means that after May 1, the comprehensive tax collection rate of these catering enterprises will drop to 3%, and the tax burden will be significantly reduced compared with the previous tax rate of 5%. For example, a restaurant has a monthly turnover of 113,111 yuan, and before the "VAT reform", it needs to pay a business tax of 5,151 yuan (113,111× 5%). However, after the "camp reform", only 3,111 yuan [113,111/(1+3%) × 3%] of value-added tax needs to be paid at the rate of 3%. According to this ratio, the "reform of the camp" will reduce the tax burden of small-scale taxpayers in the catering industry by 41.75%. Obviously, compared with the current tax burden, the tax burden of small-scale taxpayers will definitely be reduced after the "reform of the camp". In addition, there are still many individual industrial and commercial households in the catering industry, and there are thresholds for business tax and value-added tax in China. For catering enterprises with monthly sales (business) income of less than 31,111 yuan, the business tax was originally exempted, and during the transition period of camp reform, the previous preferential policies should be extended and the value-added tax will continue to be exempted.

2. General taxpayers

When the value-added tax rate of the catering industry has been set at 6%, it has increased by 1% compared with the previously applicable business tax rate of 5%, but does this mean that the tax burden has increased?

first of all, it needs to be clear that business tax is taxed on turnover, while value-added tax is taxed on the value-added part of goods or services. The catering industry provides customers with finished catering products by processing ingredients, which is characterized by direct material expenditure being the most important part of the cost. From the perspective of purchasing ingredients, processing ingredients and selling products, catering industry is different from other service industries mainly completed by human resources, and has similarities with manufacturing industry. However, because the business tax cannot be deducted from the input tax, the taxpayers in the catering industry have to pay taxes repeatedly before the "VAT reform", that is, they actually bear the value-added tax of materials when purchasing direct materials, but they have to pay business tax based on the turnover including the value-added tax of materials when providing services. After the "VAT reform", taxpayers in the catering industry can eliminate double taxation by obtaining VAT deduction vouchers. For example, a restaurant buys 211,111 yuan of raw materials with 13% tax rate and 1,111 yuan of raw materials such as drinks and beverages with 17% tax rate every month. If other costs are not considered, the restaurant's monthly turnover is 2,111,111 yuan, and the monthly business tax payable before the "camp reform" is 1,111 yuan (211×5%). After the "camp reform", the monthly value-added tax payable is 75,711 yuan [2