POS everywhere and interfaced with cash registers

More than 60 billion euros are expected to be generated this year in plastic money payments, ensuring a tax reduction for consumers and a substantial boost to public revenues. The data available to the Ministry of Finance show that transactions with plastic money are increasing month by month and seem to be stabilizing in the region of 30%-40%.

In this context, the Ministry of Finance and Independent Public Revenue Authority-AADE are planning to proceed with the expansion of POS and cash registers in all economic activities. At the same time, the online interface of the cash registers with the POS and the sending of the data to the electronic systems of AADE is being prepared.

Next steps to combat tax evasion

Thus, after the electronic application “Appodixi” which has put citizens in the game of checking receipts with the aim of identifying those issued by undeclared or tampered cash registers, the Ministry of Finance and the AADE are planning the next steps to limit tax evasion. The new moves include:

1. Mandatory installation of POS electronic payment devices everywhere, in all branches of self-employed professionals and businesses. Today for many business sectors POS installation is not mandatory. These include gyms, tutoring centers, car parks, cinemas, theaters, vehicle rentals. Also, until now, there has been no obligation to install POS in kiosks or taxis. Of course, it should be noted that many professionals have a POS in their premises to facilitate the transactions they have with their customers.

2. Online interface of cash registers with POS from the beginning of 2023. With the new system, the tax authorities will have a complete picture of the amount and time of issuance of retail sales receipts and the method of payment by the customer and will thus be able to identify cases of income concealment and VAT theft by those who do not issue a receipt. From the controls carried out by the control mechanism it has been found that many businesses in the transactions they have with their customers with credit or debit cards do not issue the retail receipt.

That is, while the POS accepts the transaction, the shopkeeper either does not cut a receipt at all or issues a receipt but with a small amount.

From the new year, cash registers and POS become one with full recording of all data in real time and the possibility of direct cross-checking by the control mechanisms. The new system is called “Retail Issuing Systems and Payment Card Acceptance Terminals (EFT POS) Interface”. With this system, EFT POS terminals will not be allowed to operate autonomously for debit transactions. That is, for card payments, it will not be allowed to enter the payment amount by typing it into the POS. The amount will come from the cash register.