Is it possible to return goods without a receipt in Poland?

One of the major questions for consumers is whether it is necessary to have a fiscal receipt when a return is made. In most cases, the regulations do not stipulate specifics on this topic. Let's find out when the return is accepted, as well as what the customers and retailers obligations are.

If we consider fiscalization legislation in Poland, we can say that every sale must be documented with a fiscal receipt issued by the fiscal device. Each retailer is required to provide proof of purchase to the purchasing customer. When a customer comes to the seller and wants to return or complain about the goods, the seller must perform several actions. When the return is accepted, the customer receives a cash refund, and the seller receives the returned goods. Importantly, that's not all—the return must be properly recorded. The seller is obliged to set up additional records in the so-called phrasebook because return transactions are not recorded directly at the cash register (it is a manual procedure), returns need to be recorded in separate registers, and mandatory elements, which are predefined, must be recorded there.

In the regulation on cash registers, it is defined that if a customer wants to return the purchased goods, he must have a document confirming the sale. It is not explicitly stated that it is to be a fiscal receipt, as is generally accepted. Such a document may also be an invoice, a statement from the terminal, confirmation of a transaction from a bank account, a guarantee document stamped by the seller, witness statements, or a statement about the loss of the receipt together with the statement of purchase. It follows that the seller is obliged to accept the return of the goods from the customer if he proves that he made the purchase in this particular store, even without presenting a fiscal receipt.