CASH REGISTER OBLIGATION: MANDATORY GENERATION OF THE "ANNUAL RECEIPT" AT YEAR END

At the end of 2021, we would like to remind you about the obligation to generate and verify the annual receipt if your company is subject to the cash register obligation.

Overview

For each cash register, the preparation of an annual receipt is required at the end of the calendar year. The receipt must be printed out as an “annual receipt”, checked by using the “BMF Belegcheck”-App and kept for seven years. Certain cash registers can alternatively create the annual receipt electronically and transmit it to FinanzOnline via the cash register web service. You need the annual receipt, which depending on the type of cash register has to be checked manually or is checked automatically, for the mandatory check of the tamper protection of your cash registers.

The following steps are required to generate  and verify the annual receipt, which in the majority of cases corresponds to the monthly receipt for December:

Step 1: Preparation of the annual receipt.

The annual receipt must be prepared by 31 December of the calendar year, even in the case a deviating fiscal year. Like any other monthly voucher, the annual receipt is a zero voucher, which is created by entering the value 0 (quantity "zero (0)", amount of cash payment "zero (0)", as a commercial term "annual receipt"). This receipt must then be printed and kept for seven years.

If your cash register creates the annual receipt electronically and sends it to FinanzOnline for verification via the cash register web service, it is not necessary to print out and retain the annual receipt. In this case, it must be ensured that the cash register has an interface to FinanzOnline so that manual checking and storage can be omitted. Your cash register manufacturer can answer this question for you.

A functioning signature creation unit that has been properly activated at FinanzOnline is required for the creation of the annual receipt. In case your signature creation unit is not functioning on 31 December, the annual receipt must be created and verified after the end of the outage immediately.

Step 2: Verification of the annual document

For the purpose of tamper protection, a mandatory check of the annual receipt must be performed, which can be done either manually using the “BMF Belegcheck”-App or automatically via the cash register web service. If the cash register has a FinanzOnline interface, the check is performed independently by the cash register.

It should be noted that the verification of the annual receipt (whether manual or automated) must be performed no later than 15 February 2022. If the check is carried out after 15 February 2022, this may fulfill a fiscal offence (“Finanzordnungswidrigkeit”) and result in a fine of up to EUR 5,000 per offender.

Special cases

If you operate a business that generates cash sales beyond midnight on 31 December, you may prepare the annual receipt after the last cash sale on 31 December 2021 or immediately before the start of the following business day if you still allocate the sales after midnight to 31 December 2021 in your accounting.

If you run a seasonal business and your last cash sale for this calendar year was, for example, already in September, the monthly receipt from September (i.e. the zero receipt September) can be used as the annual receipt. This receipt can already be checked manually in advance if there is no automatic check via FinanzOnline.

Apart from the generation of the annual receipt, it should also be noted that the complete data capture log of the cash register must be backed up on an external data carrier every quarter and thus also at the end of the year. Each backup must also be kept for at least seven years. The backup must contain the annual receipt, which ensures the immutability of the entire data capture protocol by way of signature, as the last receipt.

Verification of existing cash registers

In practice, often the registration of the cash register and the signature creation device via FinanzOnline has not been carried out correctly, and thus the documents have not been signed in accordance with the law. Under certain circumstances, this may be due to a lack of verification of the start document. Therefore, we advise you to check again whether the cash register is functioning properly in accordance with the specific provisions and has been activated via Finanzonline. Otherwise, you may be subject to further fiscal offences.