The Chinese government found it difficult to collect taxes from cash-only restaurants, so they implemented a relatively* effective control that would ensure remittance from the income generated at these establishments. The system is basic - each customer receives several invoices, each worth a different amount (e.g. 20RMB, 50RMB, etc.), totaling the amount of the bill. For example, a bill of 170RMB would get you a 100RMB, a 50RMB invoice, and a 20RMB invoice.

To ensure the customers ask for an invoice, the government provided some incentive. Each invoice has a scratch off that sometimes generates a small monetary award. I won 5RMB on Friday. I’ve seen other people win 5RMB a couple of times, but never more. Rumor has it you can win up to 10,000RMB. Maybe for this reason, most people ask for the invoices. Or maybe they want the government tax revenue to increase so they can build better weapons that are sold to those pesky Persians who support Iraqi insurgents. Or maybe just so officials can play at nicer KTV places?

That’s the system. Now, if you study Chinese, undoubtedly, one of the first things you will learn (right after 不要=bu yao=don’t want and 啤酒=pi jiu=beer, but never used together) to say is 发票 (fa piao = receipt/invoice). If your an ex-pat and your company is reimbursing you for expenses, this is especially useful. If your super polite then you might say 请给我发票 (qing gei wo fa piao = Please give me a receipt). But that’s only in the first week after learning it. Then you become all disillusioned and just starting saying 发票.

“my favorite DJ” and I were at a coffee bar on Friday night. The bill comes. We pay and the waitress starts to walk away to get change when, almost instinctively, mfDJ points his finger (you know the finger - the one parents give kids when they are really serious. I call it the “or else I’m gonna take off my belt” finger) and says “fa piao”. I start laughing. He looks me in the eye as says, as any true DJ would, “I’m crazy about scratching”.

And for that, FB AKA mfDJ gets today’s Quote of the Day. Well done, my friend.

*You may know from your “Accounting & Fraud” course that one means of circumventing controls is through collusion. Restaurant managers sometimes collude with patrons to circumvent the system - giving a discount on the price in return for the customer not asking for an invoice, which statistically is not likely to to give them the same return as the discount. And there you have it - income, off the books.