POS terminals and electronic receipt printers: the amount of undeclared income brought to light rises to 13.5 billion
During a hearing on the DPFP, the Court of Auditors cited the figures updated as at the end of September: taxable income rose by 4.1 per cent compared with the first nine months of 2025, whilst the payments remitted totalled approximately 267.5 million (+1.9 per cent)
Key points
“In the period from 1 January to 30 September 2026, the number of commercial documents submitted increased, compared with the previous year, by approximately 267.5 million (+1.9 per cent), and the corresponding taxable amount, net of returns and cancellations, by approximately 13.5 billion (+4.1 per cent).” The update on the requirement to link POS terminals with electronic cash registers (RTs) for receipts, which came into force at the start of the year, comes from the Court of Auditors (the figures were provided by the Revenue Agency) in the document submitted during the hearing on the Public Finance Policy Document (DPFP) before the Budget Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
The ‘emergence’ effect on box office takings
The effect of bringing transactions to light – at least as far as reported payments and the tax base are concerned – continues even after the end of the tourist season. Of course, the impact in terms of increased tax revenue remains to be seen, as there is still a time lag for both VAT and direct taxes, as well as IRAP. On these latter fronts, we will have to wait for the round of tax returns to be filed in 2027 (relating to the 2026 tax year) to see whether this trend will actually translate into increased tax revenue.
The potential impacts of VAT, beyond consumption trends
Meanwhile, the Court of Auditors provides an initial assessment of VAT: ‘According to data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, between January and August 2026, VAT rose by 4.5 billion (+3.9 per cent), of which 3.3 billion related to domestic trade. From a sectoral perspective, the growth in VAT on domestic trade is widespread, but particularly significant in the retail sector (+6.2 per cent), compared with more modest increases in private services (+1.7 per cent) and industry (+1.8 per cent). ‘The increase in question could be partly due to the new requirement, as well as to changing consumption patterns or inflation.’
Post-event analysis
The auditors emphasise that they consider it ‘necessary to carry out a post-implementation analysis, taking into account the data from periodic VAT returns and annual returns, in order to assess the effectiveness of the measure in broadening the tax base’.
