Important change in exemptions from the obligation to use fiscal cash registers

In August of this year, the Ministry of Finance published a draft regulation on the Government Legislation Centre’s website concerning exemptions from the obligation to keep sales records using cash registers. This periodically issued act, based on Article 111(8) and Article 145a(17) of the VAT Act, regulates the issue of exemptions from the obligation to register sales transactions on a fiscal cash register. The current regulation is valid until December 31, 2024. The Ministry has therefore already started work on its new version.

Important Changes in Fiscalization

The draft new regulation largely does not foresee significant changes and repeats the solutions applied in the currently valid version. However, a few elements cause considerable controversy, announcing serious changes in the vending machine industry.

Under the current legal framework, the supply (sale) of goods using devices intended for automatic sales, which accept payment and dispense goods in an unattended system, is exempt from the obligation to fiscalize (issue receipts). The exemption also covers devices providing other services, including ticket vending machines (e.g., machines selling transport tickets (not applicable to public mass transport), or so-called parking meters). The exemption applies to most transactions transferring ownership of goods – the regulation in several cases imposes the obligation to fiscalize transactions even if carried out through self-service machines (especially regarding fuel sales at self-service stations). This exemption has so far significantly facilitated the ongoing operation of vending machines – the lack of a device printing receipts relieves the machine owner from incurring additional costs and eliminates the need to temporarily disable the machine in case of a malfunction of the receipt issuing module or lack of thermal paper needed to print sales confirmations. The exemption from the obligation to fiscalize – one of many advantages of unattended, 24/7 vending machines – seems to be coming to an end.

Response from the Ministry

The Ministry of Finance justifies its decision with the necessity to tighten the sales recording system. The more rigorous approach to the fiscalization obligation is the Ministry’s response to market demands and signals about irregularities in reporting sales volume by inspection authorities. The Ministry, addressing the need to adapt currently used vending machines to new requirements, has provided a fairly long adjustment period – the fiscalization obligations regarding transactions carried out with the above devices will come into force on January 1, 2026.

What Do Entrepreneurs Think?

The draft regulation is only entering the public consultation phase – we do not yet have opinions from interested parties, but it is already possible to consider the potential increase in prices of products and services provided by self-service machines, resulting from the need for technological adaptation. The question remains open as to the scale of possible revenue gains for the State Treasury resulting from tightening the sales transaction recording system.