FISCAL SOLUTIONS...

Key documents

General

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The General section provides a high-level overview of fiscalization and retail compliance requirements in each country. It may include country information, type of fiscalization model, main obligations and practical compliance context. This section helps users quickly understand how the country’s fiscal system works.

Legal

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The Legal section covers the rules and official information needed to understand fiscalization and related compliance obligations in each country. It includes official laws, draft regulations, tax authority guidance, public consultations, legal interpretations, and updates on upcoming regulatory changes. This section helps users identify the legal basis of each requirement and follow the regulatory context behind fiscal, e-invoicing, e-reporting and retail compliance obligations.

Technical

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The Technical section provides practical information on how fiscal, e-invoicing, e-reporting and other compliance requirements apply to POS, ERP, middleware and other business systems. This section may include details on technical integrations, data formats, communication with tax authorities, fiscal devices, electronic documents, archiving, offline mode, certification and mandatory system functionalities. Its purpose is to give users clear and implementation-oriented guidance for operation in a specific country.

Last news published on: 21.08.2026 | News: 320

Last document published on: 20.08.2026 | Documents: 52

Highlight

Fiscalization in Germany began in 2017 with the introduction of mandatory electronic recording systems. This framework was strengthened in 2020 by the Cash Register Security Ordinance (KassenSichV), which requires the use of a Technical Security System (TSE). As a result, Germany operates a hybrid fiscalization model, combining both hardware- and software-based components. The official currency is the euro.

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Germany

The TSE is the base of the fiscalization in Germany. It has to be certified by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The Federal Fiscal Law mandates that every business must register the use of electronic recording systems and the TSE. Since January 2025, the registration of the TSE and the electronic recording systems is done through the recently finished portal “Mein ELSTER” and the ERIC interface.

Type of fiscalization: Hardware/Software

Germany adopted its first Fiscal Law in 2016. This puts Germany among the “younger” fiscal countries. It applies a combined hardware- and software-based system. 

The fiscal law prescribes the mandatory usage of the Technical Security Element (TSE) for everyone operating a cash register. The TSE must be certified and bought from approved providers. The TSE can be either hardware or software, and the list of certified solutions is published by the German Tax Authority. 

As defined by the law, every transaction has to be stored directly after it is completed in a way that it can be checked easily by authorities. Every created transaction has to be saved in a way that manipulation is not possible. Every transaction is signed and saved by the TSE. Transaction data has to be exportable in a predefined way (DSFinV-K export). 



 

Latest news for Germany

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Germany’s draft Annual Tax Act 2026 will make electronic tax notifications via the official online tax portal the standard from January 1, 2027. 

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A fiscal transaction counter sounds simple—until it meets the reality of modern retail. POS systems often count much more than sales, creating gaps that can become a serious problem for tax authorities. Add cloud POS, e-commerce, offline operation, retries and multiple checkout channels, and a simple sequence of numbers quickly becomes a complex compliance architecture challenge.

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The purpose of this document is to explain how vending machines are treated in Germany from a fiscalization perspective. This document will answer questions such as whether vending machines fall within the scope of the fiscalization system, and if not, how sales through vending machines are handled, and similar issues.

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Germany's FeRD and France's FNFE-MPE released ZUGFeRD 2.5.2 and Factur-X 1.09.2 on August 4, 2026, effective September 1. This technical update improves invoice functionality, corrects rounding issues, and enhances VAT handling. 
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Germany's new action plan targets tax evasion, VAT fraud, and financial crime, announced by the Federal Ministries of Finance and Justice. Key measures include a Joint Centre for coordinating investigations, a Tax Authority Data Analysis Centre for centralizing tax information, and AI tools for detecting fraud. Proposed systems include mandatory electronic cash registers and extended record retention.
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Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance and Justice proposed an action plan targeting tax and financial crime, featuring three measures: a new VAT reporting system to detect fraud, extending document retention from 10 to 15 years, and requiring tax data copies on German mirror servers. Details on implementation remain unclear.
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Most important documents for Germany

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We unveil the specific rules when it comes to e-commerce requirements in Germany such as receipts types and transaction types in online sales, how the sale process – online payment and delivery process looks like (possible scenarios), certification, etc

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Our fiscal experts unveil all the technical details regarding the fiscalizaton process in Germany. In this presentation, we deal with the topics such as - Fiscal requirements overview (the main features of the fiscal law) - TSE API (what is TSE, how it works – sales process, fiscal receipt, signature, transaction type and data, certificate, QR code, input and output interface of TSE - Uniform digital interface (Digital interface of the financial administration - DSFinV-K, transaction data, cash register balance data, master data, POS export) - Architecture (local, cloud-based) - Existing devices on the market (TSE providers and solution types) - S4F overview (S4F components, general architecture, possible architectures, transaction examples) Technical overview for Germany containing the newest technical details needed for fiscalization.
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This document represents a revision of the Article of the German Fiscal Code through the Law on protection against tampering with basic digital records. It describes specific details such as regulation on arrangements for bookkeeping and records through electronic recording systems, subsequent tax inspection of cash registers, and others. To find out in which way it impacts taxpayer’s obligations regarding fiscalization, please read through all the details of this document.
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Several Federal Ministries agreed to issue this regulation in September 2017 that introduced many relevant definitions and explanations of the obligatory processes which need to be implemented to comply with fiscalization rules in Germany.
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This document defines the necessary steps for the standardization of electronic documents (receipts) and the JSON structure which will be used.
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Our fiscal experts provided you this valuable overview of the fiscalization requirements in Germany with precise and concise information about fiscalization topics. This presentation answers questions such as which fiscalization type is present in Germany, is a fiscal device certification necessary, is there an online communication with TA, etc

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YouTube video - Germany

Webinars are entrance to the impressive library of knowledge

Nov 13, 2020

Fiscalization in Germany "Obligatory POS export" - Webinar Q&A and technical presentation

Nov 12, 2020

The best TSE architecture for mobile POS in Germany

Oct 30, 2020

Fiscalization in Germany: Handling offline transactions

Oct 28, 2020

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