Fiscal Cash Registers in Serbia

A public debate to discuss the Draft Law on Fiscalization has begun

The public debate on the Draft Law on Fiscalization began on November 3 and will last until November 23, the Ministry of Finance of Serbia announced. The new law should regulate better the subject and taxpayers of fiscalization, the process of fiscalization through an electronic fiscal device and the content of the fiscal account. The current Law on Fiscal Cash Registers (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 135/2004 and 93/2012) has been in force since January 1, 2005, and the main reason for the adoption of the new law is the significant progress of technology in this area in the last 15 years. The Ministry reminds that the fight against the underground economy is one of the strategic goals of the Government of Serbia, as well as that the measures to improve the system and expand the scope of fiscalization, provided by the National Program for Suppression of the Underground Economy, are the goal of the new law.

The main novelty is the introduction of monitoring and control of taxpayers by adding a special software device connected to the Internet to the existing fiscal device. The device would be connected to the Tax Administration, which would receive information on the place, time and price of the sold goods as soon as a product is charged and registered through the fiscal cash register. In this way, the need for field control is reduced.

The new rule would practically mean a new cost for taxpayers as they would have to buy an additional device, even though GPRS devices already exist at cash registers. How much it could cost in Serbia has not been officially announced yet, but an example from Croatia could be used for comparison. There, fiscalization costed entrepreneurs about 400 euros. However, it should be noted that the results were visible immediately after the application of the regulations, through higher collection of tax revenues.

Two years ago, when the new Law on Fiscalization in Serbia was first mentioned, the relevant ministry considered the possibility of the state partially financing the purchase of new necessary equipment for entrepreneurs, which is confirmed by the state’s announcement that it will allocate 3.5 to 4 billion dinars from the budget, and therefore take over most of the cost for the new fiscal cash registers.

The proposed law should address the shortcomings of the current model and lead to more efficient control of all deliveries of goods and services provided at retail, including advances received for future turnover.

“Exceptionally, if the data on issued fiscal invoices cannot be submitted in real time, due to the interruption of the Internet connection or it is not available at the place of turnover, the obligation to store data in the internal memory of the electronic fiscal device is prescribed until the data is transferred to the Tax Administration“, the Ministry of Finance stated.

Inspectors will be able to determine irregularities when, for example, they notice that certain cafes, clubs and restaurants, which are otherwise doing well, have almost no turnover on weekends. Based on that information, they will be able to go out on the field at the same time and determine the factual situation on the spot.

The proposed regulation stipulates that at the moment of turnover, each invoice is fiscalized and the data are transmitted to the Tax Administration via a permanent internet connection, as well as that the taxpayer uses a security element to sign fiscal invoices. It is stated that new legal solution will enable the buyer of the product, ie the user of services, to be able to check immediately after the invoice is issued whether it has been issued in accordance with the law.

The idea is to adopt the law by the end of the year, and the implementation is planned for January 1, 2022, in order to pass a bylaw in the meantime and enable taxpayers to harmonize their business with new solutions.

The action plan for the fight against the grey economy brings another new law – the Law on e-invoices. The Ministry of Finance claims this law to be adopted at the request of businessmen. Paper invoices will no longer exist and their issuance will be part of the digital system.

With these laws, the Ministry of Finance wants the system to be more transparent and the collection of taxes easier.