The receipt obligation: who it applies to and what it costs to ignore

The threshold is €10,000 of turnover

Under section 2, the act applies to business and professional activity where turnover for the accounting period exceeds €10,000. Activity below that threshold is outside the receipt obligation.

The threshold is turnover for the accounting period, not the size of a single sale. A growing business therefore crosses into the obligation mid-year, and no separate notice is issued.

It covers cash and comparable payment

Section 4: the trader must offer the buyer a receipt drawn up for the payment, where payment is made in cash or by a comparable means of payment. A card payment is in practice such a comparable means.

The word is offer, not give. A receipt must be offered for every sale; the buyer may decline it. The act also permits an electronic receipt.

Five details must appear on the receipt

Section 4 lists the mandatory content exhaustively:

• the trader’s name, contact details and business ID
• the date the receipt was issued
• the receipt’s identifying number or other individualising information
• the quantity and type of goods sold and the type of services
• the payment made and the amount of VAT by rate, or the VAT base by rate

The fifth item is the one that breaks by hand

VAT must be broken down by rate. If one receipt covers food and served alcohol, the two rates must appear separately — not as one combined total. A POS system does this automatically only when the rate is set on the product, not on the product group.

The identifying number means sequential numbering. On a handwritten receipt that is where human error lives; produced by a machine it is a given.

Four exceptions

Under section 3, the act does not apply to:

• sales from a vending machine
• activity covered by lottery legislation
• outdoor market and marketplace trade, except for the retail sale and serving of alcoholic beverages
• electronic commerce, payment of an invoice, and other payment situations where the buyer can pay independently without the trader present

There is a penalty for failing

Under section 6 the supervising authority may impose a negligence fee of at least €300 and at most €1,000. Its size takes into account the nature and repetition of the conduct and the value of the goods or service concerned.

Section 5 names more than one supervisor: the Tax Administration and the police, and in a licensed alcohol-serving venue the Regional State Administrative Agency as well. A supervisor may make test purchases where there is justified reason to suspect a breach.

Frequently asked