A simplification rule in connection with electronic cash registers expires on 31 December 2016. This transitional period was introduced for the stricter cash register requirements in a letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) dated 26 November 2010.
Generally no obligation to use an electronic cash register
An electronic cash register is not mandatory. Anyone using an open shop cash register must adhere to the previous - very complex - record-keeping obligations. Only those who use an electronic cash register must respond to the new requirements.
If electronic, then do it right - deadline 01.01.2017
As of 1 January 2017, all electronic data from cash register systems must be stored in non-compressed form. This means that neither the deletion of individual receipts in favour of end-of-day total receipts nor the sole storage of Z receipts on paper is permitted. If data was previously stored differently, it must be reprogrammed; if the cash register's memory is not sufficient for the additional data, it must be upgraded.
What must a health insurance fund be able to prove?
- Individual data of a posted business transaction
- Payment methods (cash/non-cash: EC/credit cards)
- Z-receipts - output to display the daily total
- Further end-of-day analyses
- Cancellation bookings
- Returns
- Withdrawals
What should be stored?
are to be stored (as in some cases before):
- Operating instructions and programming instructions,
- All data for changes to analyses, programming and master data,
- all journal data,
- the complete history of all articles, product groups and prices stored in the system.
A record must also be kept of the period in which the cash register was used and at which location (e.g. trade fairs / markets).
How should it be stored?
The data must be available at all times during the retention period, immediately readable and analysable by machine. Unalterable storage on an unalterable data carrier is also permitted.
Practical tip: Some cash registers offer interfaces to DATEV. This facilitates co-operation with the tax consultant.
Further tightening from 1 January 2020 or 2023
According to a current government draft for a law to protect against manipulation of digital basic records dated 13 July 2016, cash register operators will be subject to even stricter requirements from 1 January 2023 at the latest. The certified technical security device to be introduced at that time is intended to make it more difficult or prevent the manipulation of cash registers. The law is to be supplemented by a technical regulation with details on certification, logging of technical records and storage. A cash register inspection is also to be introduced, which will take place alongside the external audit and can take place without prior notice during normal business and working hours. The regulations are to be flanked by a new administrative offence in Section 379 AO.
Cash registers that meet the requirements from 2017, were purchased before 1 January 2020 and cannot be upgraded due to their design are to remain in use until 31 December 2022 according to the government draft.
