Fiscalization No.2 in Serbia
On May 1 this year, Serbia replaced the two-decade-old fiscalization system. This old system was based on fiscal memory and paper journal. Serbia was the first to introduce an advanced solution in 2004 that was able to transfer data from the fiscal memory to the tax administration server via a GPRS modem.
The new, modern, fiscalization system was implemented in a short period of 6 months. About 240,000 sales locations have been fiscalized so far.
The new fiscalization system consists of:
• Central Information System (SUF) in the Tax Administration;
• Secure element (BE) as a holder of a digital taxpayer certificate;
• PFR as a Sales Data Controller that can be virtual or local;
• A POS that can be any HW or SW that creates transactions at the point of issue of the invoice.
The secure element in Serbia can be HW (smart card) or SW (PFX file). It is issued through the central authorization body, which in Serbia is the Tax Administration, and which is based on the PKI solution. Practically, you can issue fiscal receipt using your smartphone and send it over to your customer using Viber or any other electronic means, it’s that simple.
Processor for Receipts (PFR) can be hardware or software based
In Serbia, except for some exceptions determined by Fiscal law, everyone uses the local PFR, which satisfies uninterrupted work even in the offline mode, when the Internet is unavailable. PFR as a controller constantly communicates with POS, BE and SUF. For each transaction, it takes data from the POS, calculates taxes, takes data on the taxpayer from the BE and, together with the BE, signs the invoices and thus creates fiscal invoices, which it returns to the POS and forwards to the SUF.
SUF is a very complex Information System which through its services:
- Controls the whole process of the secure element production;
- Monitors the status of the secure element and revoke it upon request;
- Regulates the process of accreditation of suppliers of fiscalization elements by testing them;
- Transmits certain data to the PFR through commands, including new tax rates;
- Regulates the process of fiscalization of invoices and archives them in its database;
- Regulates invoice verification and prize draw if active;
- Taxpayer Administration Portal (TAP) gives taxpayer the opportunity to be informed about his invoices and secure elements, downloads invoices or specified reports;
- Provides a large number of useful reports needed by an officer of the Tax Administration.
- Assists the inspector to plan his field inspections in advance.
POS can be any HW or SW, which creates and issues invoices to the customer. These can be an accredited cash register, POS, tablet, mobile phone, vending machine, taximeter, … If the customer wants it, the invoice he receives can also be in electronic form.
The fiscalization system supports different types of transactions: sale, refund, advance sale, training, proforma invoice and copy as well as their combinations.
Every POS or PFR on the market must be accredited by the Technical team of the Tax Administration, in order to determine its compliance with the Fiscal law of Serbia. Accreditation is free of charge and largely automated. Taxpayers can accredit their products if they already used it prior the fiscalization. in the same way as manufacturer. This is probably the reason why more than 500 products have been accredited in a relatively short period of time.
The Government of the Republic of Serbia helped every taxpayer with subsidies and thus facilitated the replacement of existing fiscal cash registers
Each invoice must have a QR code that has a link to the SUF address where that invoice can be verified. Invoice verification is possible immediately upon receipt of the invoice. In addition to the link, the QR code also contains internal data located in BE, which are immediately placed in the SUF database by verification. This is important in case the invoice to be verified has not yet arrived in the SUF if it is an offline mode.
The number of fiscal accounts on a daily basis is 10 million.
A modern monitoring center has been opened in the headquarters of the Tax Administration, from which the field work of inspectors is defined based on the information from the received invoices.
