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Fiscalization Requirements for Germany
Point of Sale integrates with EFSTA to adhere to German fiscal regulations, providing a digital interface for financial administration.
Overview of Country-Specific Fiscalization
Germany's fiscal policy is known as Kassensicherungsverordnung or KassenSichV, for short, which translates to Cash Security Ordinance.
Fiscalization in Germany requires the following:
- All POS transactions must be signed by a Technical Security System (TSE), so they’re tamper-proof.
- Produce digital interface of the financial administration for cash register systems (DSFinV-K) files during the audit (Kassennachschau).
- Point of Sale integrates with EFSTA to adhere to all German Fiscal regulations.
Reporting Requirements
EFSTA provides DSFinV-K export for fiscal reporting and auditing purposes. DSFinV-K extract is required if the merchant is audited. DSFinV-K export comprises of multiple XML exports providing all the data that is required by the Auditors.
Details related to DSFinV-K can be found here.
Effective January 1, 2025, German authorities have mandated additional reporting requirements for electronic cash register systems.
Offline Behavior
Receipts can be printed in offline mode, but the transaction is only fiscalized after the POS system goes online. Therefore, receipts will indicate that the fiscal service was offline when the transaction was completed. After the POS system goes online, the data is synced with EFSTA to fiscalize the transaction.
Review the offline and online capabilities comparison here.
Third-Party Responsibilities (Point of Sale)
EFSTA is the primary third party responsible for ensuring that each transaction is sequential, signed, cataloged, and stored for the required fiscal data retention period. EFSTA also provides all the reports needed during an audit.
- Set Up and Configure Merchants - Germany
Merchants in Germany can configure fiscal settings in Point of Sale CMS to turn on fiscalization. - Access to Reporting - Germany
Download the Point of Sale merchant’s store register data from the EFSTA portal to share with auditors. - ELSTER Reporting Requirements
Merchants in Germany who use Point of Sale CMS must electronically report their systems to their relevant tax office by uploading an XML file to MyElster.
