Online registers – another control tool for the tax

The Head of the National Tax Administration will receive in real time data on sales records and amounts of tax due in the case of taxable persons using cash registers and selling to non-business individuals and flat-rate farmers.

This information will be sent automatically to the newly created Central Repository of Kas, and taxpayers will be obliged to provide a connection between this IT system and the register office. The legislator justifies the need for new rules to enter into force in the fight against the grey zone in the tax on goods and services.

Among other things, the conditions for benefiting from the relief for the purchase of fiscal cash registers have changed.

Introduction

In the bill of 15 March 2019 on the amendment of the Goods and Services Tax Act and the Law on Measures[1] (hereinafter: Amending Act), applicable from 1 May 2019, significant changes have been made in the form, operation and operation of fiscal cash registers.

According to the new rules, online register banks will connect to the Central Repository of Kas via a telecommunications network, thus allowing the transmission of data from the accounts to this system directly, continuously, automated[2] or at the request of the Head of the KAS, in an electronic form corresponding to the logical structure in question under Article 193a(2) Act on 29 August 1997 - Tax Ordinance[3].

The controller of the data will therefore be, nomen omen, Chief of Kas, and the Central Repository of Kas will flow information from the register offices, containing information on the sales shown in the records kept, on the events recorded in the memory of these cash registers relevant to their work, including fiscalisation of the cash register, changes in tax rates, address of the point of sale and dates of technical reviews.[4].

In its justification for the law, the legislator explicitly stated that ‘The sales data (...) will contain a time stamp, which will allow for detailed analyses to be carried out to determine the likelihood that the taxable person concerned does not record his sales at the register office or record only part of the sales’[5].

Exchange of cash registers to online only in specific industries

Tax payers are not required – except for some, specifically defined industries in the amending Act – to quickly exchange used cash registers.

Under this Act, confirmation of compliance with the functions, criteria and technical conditions for fiscal cash registers with electronic recording of copies shall remain valid for no longer than the period for which they were issued.

31 December 2022; and for cash registers with paper recording of copies no longer than to 31 August 2019[6].

The justification for the act indicates that in practice these cash registers will be used until they are fully operational, while in paper-based cash registers the fiscal memory will not be exchanged and therefore the taxpayer will have to (if necessary to exchange memory) buy money online or with electronic records.

If the taxable person fails to comply with the obligation to transfer to the registrant, within the time limits laid down in the legislation, a technical review by the service provider, the head of the tax office shall impose a fine on him in the amount of 300 PLN. 7

Fiscal cash registers in the online mode are therefore intended to be target devices, but the Act lists industries – recognised by the legislator as high-risk areas in terms of irregularities in the record of sales – in which taxpayers are obliged to use these devices and indicates the time limits until they can use the so-called old cash registers, before exchanging them for new online types. The taxable persons will be able to keep records of the sale by means of cash registers with electronic or paper records of the copy within:

1. until 31 December 2019 – for the provision of repair services for motor vehicles and mopeds, including for the repair of tyres, their establishment, retreading and regeneration, and for the replacement of tyres or wheels for motor vehicles and mopeds; for the sale of petrol, diesel, gas for combustion engines;
2. until 30 June 2020 – for the provision of food-related services only provided by fixed catering establishments, including seasonally, and short-term accommodation services; the sale of coal, briquette and similar solid fuels produced from coal, lignite, coke and semi-coking for heating purposes;
3. until 31 December 2020 – for the provision of hairdressing, cosmetic and cosmetic services, construction, medical care provided by doctors and dentists, legal services, related to the activities of objects to improve physical fitness – only as regards admission[8].

Right to relief for the purchase of fiscal cash registers

Although the amount of tax deduction on goods and services in relation to the purchase of fiscal cash has not changed in accordance with the new rules, such relief can only be used for the purchase of online cash. The tax payers are therefore entitled to deduct from the tax due the amount spent on the purchase of a register office of 90% its purchase price (excluding tax), but not more than 700 PLN, provided that the purchase of such cash was not later than the time limit 6 months after the start of the records[9].

According to the legislator, the above formula of funding of online cash registers is intended, of course, to seal the tax system. However, for taxpayers, it will be a restriction on the existing possibility of benefiting from a concession for the purchase of other types of fiscal cash registers.

The Act requires the taxpayer to ensure that the data can be transmitted between the register office and the Central Repository of Kas[10].

If, for reasons which are independent of the taxable person, such communication is not possible temporarily, he is obliged to keep records of the sale and to ensure this merger immediately after the end of these reasons; and if there is a permanent absence of the merger, he is obliged to keep records of the sale and, with the agreement of the head of the tax office, to ensure this merger in accordance with the time intervals established by the warden.

Implementation of this requirement can be expected to pose frequent problems in the practice of online cash registers.

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