Fiscal Data Module (FDM) & Certified Cash Register Systems (CCRS)

The laws obliging all Belgian taxpayers in the hospitality sector (HORECA) to use Certified Invoicing Systems are:

• Royal Decree No. 1 of 29 December 1992 on measures to ensure payment of the tax on the value added. This Royal Decree determines which subject in hospitality sector is required to issue receipt using a cash register system; 
• The Royal Decree of 30 December 2009 contains definition and requirements to be met by a cash register system in the hospitality sector;
• The Act of 30 July 2013 on the certification of a cash register system in the hospitality sector. This law describes the certification process and determines the obligations of the manufacturer and importer;
• The Royal Decree of October 2013 on the implementing rules adopted regarding the certification of a cash register system in hospitality sector. This Royal Decree determines the technical requirements of the FDM which functions must satisfy the CCRS functions and set the terms of the certification process;

Taxpayers who registered voluntarily to use CCRS and FDM in the course of 2014, (registration started on December 1 2013) have been awarded with the permission to use reduced VAT rate of 12% on the sale of their goods and services. Other taxpayers will enjoy the same benefits as of January 1st 2015, when the use of certified devices in all of hospitality sector becomes mandatory…

Tax rate reduction from 21% to 12% was supported with evidence of massive tax evasion uncovered by Ministry of Finance inspectorate in this sector. We salute this action as such incentive represents justice to all honest taxpayers and benefits to all consumers.

The CCRS and FDM system was carefully chosen by experienced Belgian project team. Back in 2009 they started investigation to find best solution available on the market. Combination of Swedish Control Unit and German Insika (smart card) gave birth to Fiscal Data Module (FDM).

Certification conducted by Belgian project team is in progress and, as deadline approaches, CCRS and FDM vendors are rushing to offer their solution to taxpayers in HORECA sector.
So far, as of September 4th 2014, following are certified:

CCRS models:

FDM models:
Only one model of FDM is certified, produced by Swedish manufacturer Retail Innovation AB. Note that version change applies to firmware version, most likely due to anomalies discovered after certification:

Solution disadvantage is the exclusive use of RS232 communication protocol between CCRS and FDM. This can be changed in the future (hint: FDM is only storage and real time clock mechanism for VSC (smart card)).
How can this be improved in future? … answer to that is OUR BUSINESS.