Legalized Extortion?

I’m going to describe a real case study and let you decide if the title of today’s blog is true.  This situation occurred several years ago at a client’s restaurant in Ontario. My client operated a small, reasonably successful, restaurant in a fashionable downtown neighbourhood.  She was the head chef, general manager and office administrator.  She did [...]

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The True Cost of Staff Theft

As restaurateurs, we are all well aware of the high incidence of theft by our employees.  Proper supervision and other internal controls can help minimize theft.  As prudent businesspeople, we try to balance the cost of detecting and preventing theft against the cost of the items taken from the restaurant.  Usually, we only consider the actual cost [...]

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How do they do it (to you)?

I’m often asked by my clients and fellow restaurateurs how the tax auditors arrive at their reassessments for unreported sales. It is a pretty simple approach, though the calculations will boggle the minds of those who don’t know how to use Excel!  In a nutshell, the approach is the same, regardless of whether it is [...]

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You’ve Been Selected

You will find out about your upcoming audit, when you receive an officious telephone call from the auditor assigned to your establishment.  He or she will try to schedule a start date for the audit within the next couple of weeks.  They don’t like to give you too much time to get ready for their arrival, but they [...]

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Is Your Restaurant Going to be Audited?

If you operate a restaurant or bar that serves alcohol, you can be certain that you will come face to face with one or more government auditors, about every four years. Why?  Provincial and federal tax authorities truly believe that under-reporting sales is rampant in the hospitality industry.  Tax authorities are statute barred from reassessing returns more [...]

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