After months of pressure, June 9 was a date eagerly awaited by restaurateurs, who were able to resume their indoor activity.
All?
No, not in Chambly, where Le Bacitalia, a pizzeria grill restaurant, has not reopened.
Its owner, Serge Brancourt, did not have the heart for that.
Already weakened by a serious illness for which he has been treated for 5 months, he noticed at the end of May that his company's accounts were heavily overdrafted.
The cause ?
The tax office stopped in February to pay him the solidarity fund linked to the health crisis, to which his establishment is eligible.
"We had 8,150 euros each month, that barely covered our costs"
“We had € 8,150 each month, that barely covered our costs,” explains the manager.
It is therefore € 32,600 that we did not receive!
" Why ?
The tax services are claiming a little over € 18,000 from him following a late payment of VAT and company property contributions - debts contracted… by the previous owner.
“I do not dispute the sums, but it still makes a difference of a little less than € 15,000 in our favor.
“Contacted, the Beauvais tax office did not wish to respond, assuring that the file was being processed.
To re-start, hotels and restaurants in the Oise already offer more than 500 jobs
In the meantime, seated near the entrance to his establishment where nothing has changed, as if frozen since the reconfinement measures last fall, Serge Brancourt is distraught. “I could file for bankruptcy, but I like what I do, see customers, talk to them…” It was in August 2018 that this 68-year-old man bought the establishment. “I am retired after a career in the hotel industry, it was a project for fun, with my wife. But quickly, he realizes that he has been scammed.
“I thought I was covered because the brother of the former owner is a lawyer in a firm that has a storefront, I was given confidence, he regrets.
On the day of the sale, he had no balance sheet to present but assured me it would come.
As a result, Serge Brancourt finds himself with € 40,000 in hidden debts, in particular with suppliers.
He brought the case before the Pontoise court which gave him partly right last January.
“The seller must pay me € 8,900 as a provision that I am still waiting for,” he breathes.
We couldn't predict the Covid
The restaurateur, however, does not give up. "I went to the kitchen, we never paid ourselves a salary, we were ready to make the necessary efforts to get out of it, but we could not predict the Covid", he sighs. Over the last fourteen months, the Bacitalia has been closed for nine months and opened five others with “a 50% drop in turnover, or just over € 265,000 in losses compared to 2019.” In this situation, impossible for him to settle his debts. "Without that, it would already be done," he says, raising his arms to the sky.
In recent months, his health problems have not helped the situation. "I have been hospitalized several times and in such a state of weakness that I was unable to fight," he blows. Today, he hopes that common sense prevails in the face of the administrative machine. If the taxes refuse to pay him the difference, he offered to pay € 10,000 of his debt to recover the entire solidarity fund to which he was entitled. "It's a business that is turning, with a loyal clientele ..." And to conclude: "It's a job that we love, we don't want to let it go. "