Cash register and POS rules for restaurants in Europe: a country-by-country guide

Three ways European countries regulate cash registers

European countries regulate restaurant tills in roughly three ways. Knowing which model applies tells you what kind of system you need.

• Record keeping only. No certified device is required, but your records must be complete, traceable and kept for the legal period. Examples: the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
• Certified or secured system. The software or hardware must meet technical security rules and be certified or come with proof of compliance. Examples: Germany (TSE), Austria (signature device), France (certificate or vendor attestation).
• Registered or connected to the tax authority. The till is registered and sends sales data to the tax authority, daily or almost in real time. Examples: Belgium (GKS for restaurants), Italy (registratore telematico) and, from 2027 (a delay to October 2028 has been announced), Spain (Verifactu, optional real-time mode).

Summary table: cash register rules by country

Netherlands: no certified till, but strict record keeping

The Netherlands has no certified-cash-register law, but the Belastingdienst treats your till data as part of your legal administration. Article 52 of the General State Taxes Act (AWR) requires you to keep records so that your rights and obligations are clear at all times, and the Belastingdienst says the retention period is 7 years.

In its 2023 guidance for cash systems, the Belastingdienst lists what it checks during an audit:

• Every event is recorded from the start, even sales that are not finished. Corrections stay visible as reversal entries; nothing is deleted without a trace.
• Data stays complete and correct, for example with continuous transaction numbering, automatic timestamps and an audit trail of who did what and when.
• Data is stored in detail for 7 years. Summarising data so that details are lost is not allowed. A backup at another location is required, which cloud systems usually provide.
• Reliable reports, such as daily closings and turnover per item, per period or per location.
• You can hand over the data in a readable format within a reasonable time.

The older Belastingdienst brochure on cash systems explains the classic X- and Z-reports: an X-report is an interim total after which the till keeps counting, while a Z-report is the end-of-day total after which the till starts counting again. It also says special actions must be logged and kept, such as corrections, training mode and opening the drawer without a sale. It says a mechanical till is only acceptable for very small businesses.

Germany: KassenSichV, TSE and the receipt obligation

In Germany, anyone who records sales with an electronic cash system must protect it with a certified technical security device (TSE), give a receipt for every sale and register the system with the tax office. The rules are in § 146a of the Fiscal Code (AO) and the Cash Register Security Regulation (KassenSichV).

• TSE: the system and its digital records must be protected by a certified TSE, made up of a security module, a storage medium and a uniform digital interface (§ 146a(1) AO).
• Belegausgabepflicht: you must issue a receipt to the customer immediately after each transaction (§ 146a(2) AO). Under § 6 KassenSichV the receipt must show, among other things, the transaction number, the serial numbers of the till and of its security module, and a signature counter. It can be on paper or, with the customer's consent, electronic.
• Notification duty: since 1 January 2025 you report your electronic cash systems to the tax office via Mein ELSTER or the ERiC interface. Systems acquired before 1 July 2025 had to be reported by 31 July 2025. Newer systems must be reported within one month of acquisition, and the same applies when you take one out of use. Rented and leased systems count as acquired (BMF letter of 28 June 2024).
• DSFinV-K: the tax authority's standard export format for cash data, used for audits and unannounced cash inspections (Kassen-Nachschau). Your vendor implements it; you should be able to produce the export.
• Retention: books and records must be kept for 10 years and accounting vouchers for 8 years (§ 147 AO).

Planned change: on 23 September 2026 the federal cabinet approved a draft law that would require businesses with more than €100,000 annual turnover to use an electronic cash system from 1 January 2028, and replace paper receipts with digital receipts from 1 January 2028. Businesses with less than €12,000 cash sales a year would be exempt. It is a draft, not law yet.

Belgium: the registered cash system (GKS) for restaurants

In Belgium, restaurants and caterers must use a registered cash system (GKS, the 'white till') once their annual turnover from restaurant and catering services exceeds €25,000 excluding VAT, according to the FOD Financiën. Drinks, takeaway meals and general food sales do not count towards that threshold.

The system is changing. The FOD Financiën announced on 3 June 2026 that a royal decree makes GKS 2.0 mandatory from 1 July 2026: the till and the fiscal data module (black box) must be GKS 2.0-certified, and sales data goes to the FOD Financiën almost in real time. New restaurants must start on GKS 2.0 straight away. Restaurants that already have a GKS get a transition period based on when they bought their current till:

France: secure cash software and proof of compliance

In France, VAT-registered businesses that sell to private customers and record payments in cash software must use software that guarantees inalterability, security, storage and archiving of the data (article 286 I 3° bis CGI). If you can't prove compliance, the fine is €7,500. Businesses under the VAT franchise, B2B-only businesses and businesses making only VAT-exempt sales are excluded.

How you prove compliance changed twice. The 2025 Finance Law accepted only a certificate from an accredited body from 16 February 2025, with transition periods. The 2026 Finance Law (article 125) brought back the vendor's individual attestation: since 21 February 2026 you can prove compliance with either the certificate or the vendor's attestation. Keep the document for the exact software version you use.

Austria: Registrierkassenpflicht and RKSV

In Austria, a business must use a cash register once it has €15,000 annual turnover and more than €7,500 'cash' sales a year. Both limits must be exceeded. Card payments count as cash sales (Barumsätze), so the rule is not only about notes and coins.

• Every till needs a technical security device that signs and chains the sales; the receipt shows a machine-readable code, for example a QR code (Registrierkassensicherheitsverordnung, RKSV). Tills are registered via FinanzOnline.
• You must give a receipt from the first cash sale, whether or not the cash register obligation applies, and keep a copy for 7 years. Since 1 October 2026 the receipt may be shown on screen for the guest to scan or photograph, but the till must still be able to print one if the guest asks.
• If the obligation applies and you have no till, or a till without a security device, the fine can reach €5,000.

Italy: registratore telematico and the POS link

In Italy, restaurants, bars and shops must store each day's takings electronically and send them to the Agenzia delle Entrate, using a registratore telematico (RT) or the agency's free web tool. The old scontrino and ricevuta fiscale have been replaced by the 'documento commerciale', which is usually still printed for the guest (it can be sent digitally only if the guest agrees). What is electronic is the storage and transmission of your sales data. The obligation was phased in during 2019–2020, and penalties have applied since 2021.

• If the RT is offline at closing time, you have 12 days to send the data.
• Recording a sale wrongly or not at all, in a way that affects VAT, costs 70% of the VAT involved, at least €300 per transaction, and can lead to a suspension of your licence. A late or missed transmission with no VAT impact costs €100 per transmission, up to €1,000 per quarter (since 1 September 2024).
• New since 2026: card terminals and other electronic payment tools must be linked to the RT through an online service of the Agenzia delle Entrate, for transactions from 1 January 2026. For payment tools already in use in January 2026 the deadline was 20 April 2026. A new POS must be linked between the 6th and the last day of the second month after it starts operating.

Spain: Verifactu scheduled for 2027, delay to 2028 announced

Spain's Verifactu rules (Royal Decree 1007/2023) require invoicing software, including software that issues simplified invoices (tickets), to create a secured record of each invoice and print a QR code on it. The records are either kept in the system or sent to the Agencia Tributaria (Verifactu mode).

The start dates were postponed. According to the Agencia Tributaria, the rules become mandatory on 1 January 2027 for companies paying corporate income tax and on 1 July 2027 for all other taxpayers, including the self-employed. Businesses that already report through the SII system are excluded.

Announced delay: on 5 October 2026 the Spanish Ministry of Finance announced it will postpone Verifactu to October 2028, to line it up with mandatory e-invoicing. This has not been published in the BOE yet, so the 2027 dates remain the legal position for now. Check the latest status before you buy or change software.

United Kingdom: HMRC record keeping and Making Tax Digital

The UK has no certified-till scheme like Germany's TSE; HMRC's rules are about keeping the right records. For VAT, HMRC lists records of daily takings, such as till rolls, among your business records, and you must generally keep VAT records for at least 6 years.

• Limited companies must keep records for 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to. Sole traders must keep them for at least 5 years after the 31 January filing deadline of the tax year.
• Making Tax Digital for VAT has applied to all VAT-registered businesses since 1 April 2022: you keep VAT records digitally and file returns with compatible software.
• Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, and extends to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.

Practical checklist for any country

Whatever country you are in, these habits keep you audit-ready:

1. Close the day with a Z-report (daily closing) and keep it. Never delete or 'reset' totals outside the normal closing.
2. Count the cash drawer daily and record the difference with the Z-report, including cash taken out or put in.
3. Correct with reversals, not deletions, and make sure the system logs who did it.
4. Export your data regularly for your accountant (monthly works for most), and keep a backup in another location.
5. Keep data for the legal period: 7 years in the Netherlands and Austria, 6 years for UK VAT, up to 10 years in Germany.
6. Keep the paperwork for your system: certificates, attestations, registration confirmations (ELSTER, FinanzOnline, GKS) and the settings history.
7. Check your setup when you open a new venue, change systems or cross a threshold, because that's often when an obligation starts.

Common mistakes

• Assuming 'cash' means only notes and coins. In Austria card payments count as cash sales, and in Italy, France and Belgium the rules cover sales regardless of how the guest pays.
• Using a separate tablet or app next to a certified till and not putting those sales through the certified system, where the law requires it.
• Forgetting the notification in Germany when you buy, lease or retire a till.
• Relying on paper till rolls only in the Netherlands, where the Belastingdienst expects electronically created data to be kept electronically.
• Missing a transition deadline, such as Belgium's GKS 2.0 dates or Italy's POS link.

Where online and QR ordering fit in

Ordering platforms and fiscal cash registers do different jobs. QR table ordering, a webshop or a kiosk takes and pays orders; a certified fiscal system meets a country's specific tax-security rules. Restaurant by DTS includes a POS and waiter view with cash and card payments, sends a daily Z-report by email and offers an accounting export for your bookkeeper.

Restaurant by DTS is not a certified fiscal system. It has no TSE, no RKSV signature device, no GKS registration and no French certificate or attestation, and it is not a registratore telematico. In countries with these rules (Germany, Austria, Belgium above the threshold, France, Italy, and Spain once Verifactu applies: 2027 under current law, with a delay to October 2028 announced) you need a certified or registered cash system for the sales the law covers. That often includes card payments, not only cash. Ask your accountant how to combine it with online and QR orders.

For how QR ordering works in practice, see our QR code ordering guide.

Disclaimer

This guide is general information, checked against official sources on 29 October 2026. It is not tax or legal advice. Rules, thresholds and deadlines change, and local or regional rules may apply. Check the linked sources and ask a tax adviser or accountant in your country before you choose or change a cash system.

Frequently asked questions