Good news for owners of catering establishments in Szczecin!

The city is planning to support catering businesses again. This includes owners of hotels, restaurants, bars and discotheques who are required to pay for an alcohol license. Due to the pandemic they will given the opportunity to get a partial refund.

Under existing law the alcohol license for this year should be paid by the end of January, either in full or as a third of the total amount (as the first of three instalments). The license costs at least PLN 3,150 (in total), representing quite a burden on catering businesses.

In response to numerous requests from these establishments, the Mayor of Szczecin will put forward a resolution on this matter for the upcoming City Council Session.

The plan expects to:

- exempt entrepreneurs who have not paid for the license from the entire amount;

- reimburse 99% of the license fee to entrepreneurs who have already paid it in full in January;

- exempt entrepreneurs who have paid the first instalment of the license fee from further instalments (the first instalment may not be reimbursed under existing law ).

Alcohol license fees vary depending on revenue. For example, in 2020 owners of catering establishments in Szczecin paid a total of PLN 1,864,103 for their licenses.

This support measure became available only after the “Act on amending the Act on specific solutions to prevent, counteract and combat COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them, and certain other Acts” of 25 January had been published in the Journal of Laws . It is worth pointing out that these amendments have been made in response to postulates from local governments, which issued their appeals on this matter to the Government.

As a side note, we would like to remind you about other forms of business support provided by the City:

-  rent reduced to nominal sums from mid-March to the end of June 2020 and from 24 October to the end of December 2020 (work is underway to extend this reduction until the end of February 2021);

- real property tax exemption, including extended time limits for the payment of the tax in instalments;

-  during summer holidays restaurant owners were allowed to pay half the amount of their rent;

- restaurant owners received a 90% reduction on fees charged for restaurant gardens;

-  restaurant owners on Jana Pawła II Avenue (along the Fontann Avenue section) were provided with space to open food and beverage gardens;

- the Szczeciński Lokalny Solidarny campaign to promote solidarity with local businesses (redemption of vouchers for products and services);

-  the online Christmas Fair and the Christmas Fair in the city