The long-announced modernization of the fiscal cash register system in Poland will begin this year. It will include all existing “first generation” fiscal cash registers. Since there are many taxpayers, the replacement will be organized in stages and will last for few years. The final list and user specification has not been completed yet, it is certain that there will be new amendments even after the fiscalization begins. According to some comments due to the incompleteness of the law, there is a danger that same user has to replace the cash register twice. The main novelties on which the modernization is based are: e-receipts, online data transfer to the tax administration server, archiving of receipt data in digital form and unification of the protocol between cash register and the payment terminal.
Modern technologies require that invoices, in particular B2B, be electronic, issued electronically without the use of paper. Currently available on the Polish market, fiscal cash registers and fiscal printers are issuing original fiscal receipts only in paper form. The e-receipt will be available to every consumer after entering the buyer’s code – this also applies to people paying in cash.
Poland joins the latest trend in the world of fiscalization, an online connection with the tax administration server. Communication with tax administration servers will take place via a standard internet connection or GSM network. Sales data will be transferred online in the form of a Uniform Control File (JPK-VAT) directly to the tax administration server. The new cash registers are to be easier to monitor, which in turn will help to reduce the number of inspections, but to increase their effectiveness by better targeting of entities suspected of unfair activities.
The largest number of fiscal cash registers of the first generation has a journal (copy of the receipt) in paper form. Paper copies are costly; they are short-lived and require a large storage space in the long period. New fiscal law insists on the digital form of receipt keeping. The new regulation is to eliminate the possibility of archiving fiscal documents in paper form. Copies of receipts will be saved only in electronic form.
The unique communication protocol between the cash register and payment terminal has been completed. The largest cash register manufacturers (Comp, Elzab,…), bank card processing companies (Elavon, First Data Polcard, IT Card and eService) and payment terminal manufacturers (Ingenico and Verifone) have agreed to accept this protocol. This will make it possible to connect any fiscal register with any payment terminal without additional integration work. The cashier will no longer have to manually enter the payment amount into the terminal – it will be automatically entered from the cash register. This protocol will constitute an appendix to the fiscal regulation.
A large number of taxpayers who already own a fiscal cash register (1,200,000) is the biggest problem of the fiscalization process in Poland. For the time schedule in the process of fiscalization, it will be considered whether cash registers are old or new, whether the taxpayer has a cash register with a paper journal or not, whether the fiscal memory in the cash register is full or not. In addition to this, also care will be taken of the business activities to which the taxpayer belongs.
The fiscal cash registers with a paper journal will be fiscalised until the end of 2018. After filling the fiscal memory of such a cash register, this fiscal memory will not be possible to substitute for a new one as it was the case so far.
Cash registers of the “old” type with an electronic journal can be fiscalized until the end of 2022.
Some sensitive sectors will be required to use online cash registers in predefined time frames:
- From 1 January 2019 - taxpayers providing motorization and vulcanization services and selling gasoline, diesel oil, and gas intended for the propulsion of internal combustion engines.
- From July 1, 2019 - taxpayers providing catering and construction services.
- From January 1, 2020.– taxpayers providing hairdressing, cosmetics, cosmetology, fitness and short-term accommodation services.
