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New Regulations for the Electronic Cash Management as of January 1 2020

On December 22, 2016, a law on "protection against manipulation of basic digital records" was passed. The purpose of this law was to ensure that the cash registers can no longer be manipulated. It affects all companies that have an electronic cash register from the year 2020 onwards. Following the new legal situation the Federal Ministry of Finance (“BMF”) released two decrees on June 17 and November 6, 2019 expressing the view of the tax administration in more detail.

Below please find a brief summary of the changes:

1. Protection by Certified Technical Safety Equipment

Every electronic recording system used must be protected by a certified technical safety device. This means that it must be ensured that the logging of certain requirements, such as the time of the beginning and end of each transaction, must be guaranteed. Also there must be certain integration and export interfaces in order to be able to make output files available in defined form to the finance authorities. We recommend that you consult with the manufacturer of the electronic cash registers in this regard to ensure that the necessary requirements are met:

• The technically necessary adaptations and upgrades must always be carried out immediately. However, the tax authorities will not complain if such a certified technical safety device is in place by 30 September 2020 at the latest.
• Electronic cash registers, which cannot be upgraded due to their design, may no longer be used since 2017.
• Cash registers (with the exception of PC cash register systems) which were purchased after November 25, 2010 and before January 1, 2020 and which cannot be upgraded due to their design may continue to be used until 31.12.2022 at the latest. Proof of this (e.g. a confirmation from the cash register manufacturer) must be documented.

2. Receipt Output

Anyone using an electronic cash register is obliged from January 1, 2020 to issue receipts electronically (with the consent of the customer) or in paper form:

• The minimum requirements of the receipts/vouchers will remain as before, but must be supplemented by the serial number of the electronic recording system or the serial number of the security module.
• The issue of the vouchers must also take place in a direct temporal connection with the completion of the process (in most of your cases with the sale of the goods). 

The customer is not obliged to accept or store the documents in paper form. Nevertheless, there is an obligation to prepare, print and offer the voucher to the customer beforehand.

Should the issue of the voucher result in an objective or personal hardship (the costs incurred as a result do not represent an objective hardship), an obligation to issue the voucher can be waived upon application and with the consent of the competent authority. This may have to be examined in individual cases.

3. Reporting Obligation

Taxpayers using electronic recording systems must submit one notification per establishment within one month of acquisition or decommissioning.

For electronic recording systems purchased before January 1, 2020, the notification must be made by January 31, 2020 at the latest. This notification obligation can also be fulfilled by an authorised person, e.g. tax advisors.

The obligation is currently to be waived until it is possible to notify this electronically.

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Compliance with the statutory obligation must be ensured as of January 1, 2020. In case of doubt, we recommend to inquire promptly with the respective cash register manufacturer whether an adjustment or upgrade is possible, or to have the contrary documented by him.

With regard to the obligation to notify the authorities, we strongly recommend to check regular updates on subject matter.

If you have any questions, in particular when checking whether the supporting documents meet the minimum legal requirements, when formulating your request to the cash register manufacturers or when notifying the authorities, please do not hesitate to contact

Björn Christian Gerow

Steuerberater

Fachberater IStR

b.c.gerow@egsz.de

+49-211-17257-0

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