The Real Threat

Despite what has been published in the press and disclosed by the CRA and the Ministry of Revenue Quebec (MRQ), the use of zappers has not reached epidemic proportions in the restaurant industry.  Zappers have been around since the mid-1990s, though most of the usage seems to have been confined to Quebec.  In fact, the vast majority [...]

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How to Get Caught Using Zappers

This post concerns the use of zappers in restaurant operations.  It is not a “how to” guide in their “proper” use, nor is it, in any way, an endorsement of their use.  In fact, if you are even thinking of employing a zapper to fill your pockets with cash stop and read this post.  It [...]

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Restaurant Tax Fraud – Then and Now

Recently, we’ve begun to hear a lot more about tax evasion in the restaurant industry.  More specifically, we’re talking about technologically-assisted tax fraud, using zappers or phantom-ware.  It made the news, again this past week, when it was disclosed that the Canada Revenue Agency had found more than $40M of unreported tax in the restaurant [...]

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Zapper Update

Today’s Toronto Star ran an article about restaurants hiding cash income.  You can find it here:  Restaurant probe finds $40M in ‘phantom’ sales. Until recently, most detective work surrounding the use of zappers had been focused in Quebec.  Now, we find out that the CRA has been involved in a two year, national probe of [...]

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Auditproofing – Tracking Menu Changes

As a restaurateur, you probably have a general idea how your menus and prices have changed over the last few years.  Unfortunately, only having a “general idea” can land you in a big pot of trouble when your restaurant is audited.  This post reviews a few of the methods of documenting key changes to your menu and [...]

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