Rentabilité des sociétés de titres-services en Région wallonne : évolution et perspectives d'avenir

Abstract

In 2001, the federal government introduced the “service vouchers” scheme in order to meet household demand for proximity services. This system appeared at first as a mode of public regulation to fight against undeclared work in the sector of the domestic work and to create stable jobs for under-qualified people. The service voucher sector has become, over time, a real sector of activity that now plays a significant role in the personal services sector.

As soon as this scheme was put in place, a large number of people created their service vouchers companies. The system was particularly advantageous for both the person who initiated his activity and the user. Over time, the system has become less and less advantageous, regulations have become more stringent on the part of service-voucher companies and the price borne by the user has increased several times. Since then, we have seen companies go bankrupt, small structures that disappear in favor of the biggest, a heap of polemics concerning fraud in the sector. In view of the situation, what are the future prospects offered to the companies of the service-voucher sector?

The purpose of this thesis will be to understand to what extent the changes in the tax legislation regulating the system have had an impact on the financial viability of service vouchers companies in the Walloon Region.

In order to answer this question, we first identified the factors that could influence the profitability of these companies. Then, we tried to determine the cost price of a service voucher by evaluating its real hourly cost. It appears that commercial enterprises and temporary work agencies are among those that have the best control of their costs, followed by nonprofit organizations and, finally, integration enterprises that bear a cost higher than the exchange value of the service voucher. We also conducted a financial analysis to determine whether the evolution of the factors identified before could have had an impact on the profitability of the companies. In addition, a series of interviews was carried out in order to obtain the opinions of service vouchers companies’ managers about the scheme, its evolution and the prospects for the future they envisage.