POS terminals and receipts: the tax authorities ban software designed to speed up processing
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), in response to a question from Fratelli d’Italia during Question Time in the Chamber of Deputies’ Finance Committee: the Agency has identified technical solutions, currently undergoing testing, that are capable of detecting and preventing the use of speed boosters
Key points
Software designed to speed up the transmission of electronic receipt data has come under scrutiny from the tax authorities. The Agency ‘has not only taken steps to raise awareness amongst retailers not to use such applications, but has also identified technical solutions – currently undergoing testing – capable of detecting and blocking the use of these speed-up programmes’. This was explained by Lucia Albano, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of the Economy, in response to a question tabled during Question Time in the Chamber of Deputies’ Finance Committee by her party, Fratelli d’Italia, with Saverio Congedo as the lead signatory.
POS receipt data
The request stemmed from data on the requirement for electronic cash registers to be linked to POS terminals, as reported in advance by *Il Sole 24 Ore*, on which the Court of Auditors provided an update during the hearings on the DPFP at the end of September, revealing that 13.5 billion compared with the same months of 2025, when there was no obligation to align figures.
Interaction with the Agency’s software
The issue addressed in the reply concerns ‘speed-up’ software. As the Under-Secretary explained in her reply, the applications in question ‘mask’ ‘interaction with the Agency’s “Online Commercial Document” web procedure, allowing commercial documents to be generated and issued via an interface other than that provided by the Agency itself’.
The risk of breaching certification obligations
There is, however, a problem – and not a minor one – which risks compromising compliance with tax certification obligations and the flow of data on receipts, thereby jeopardising the collection of information that represents a strategic and versatile asset on many fronts in the fight against tax evasion. In fact, ‘whenever the Agency implements its own procedure, these applications freeze, exposing the business owner to the risk of breaching tax certification obligations’.
95 per cent of traders and shopkeepers use electronic cash registers
Let’s take another step back. There are two tools for complying with the obligation to record and electronically transmit sales data: the ‘electronic cash register’, currently used by around 95 per cent of traders, and the online procedure known as the ‘Online Commercial Document’, used by the remaining 5 per cent.
