Albania sets December 31, 2026 deadline for mandatory POS/POI terminals

Albanian taxpayers carrying out cash sales must equip every point of sale with a POS/POI terminal by December 31, 2026, unless exempt. The obligation, introduced by Law No. 79/2025, expands electronic payment availability across most remaining businesses.

The Albanian Tax Administration has reminded taxpayers that December 31, 2026 is the final deadline for most remaining businesses carrying out cash sales to install a POS/POI terminal at every point of sale.

The requirement is established in Article 59/3 of Law No. 9920 of May 19, 2008, “On Tax Procedures in the Republic of Albania,” as amended by Law No. 79/2025. The provision introduced a phased timetable for mandatory POS/POI availability across businesses operating in Albania.

The Tax Administration’s September 2026 notice confirms that taxpayers not already covered by an earlier implementation deadline must comply by the end of 2026.

The requirement forms part of Albania’s broader policy of encouraging electronic payments, increasing transaction transparency and reducing reliance on cash.

Article 59/3 establishes a broad rule: taxpayers carrying out cash sales must have a POS/POI terminal at every point of sale.

This means the obligation applies at location level rather than simply requiring a business to own one terminal somewhere within its organization.

For retailers operating multiple stores, therefore, each relevant point of sale must be assessed separately.

The law defines a POS/POI terminal as a device enabling customers to use bank cards or other electronic payment instruments at the point of sale or interaction.

The requirement does not mean that businesses can no longer accept cash. Instead, taxpayers within scope must provide the necessary infrastructure enabling customers to make electronic payments.

The POS/POI requirement was introduced through Law No. 79/2025, adopted on December 11, 2025 and subsequently incorporated into the Tax Procedures Law.

The legislation created two implementation deadlines.

The first deadline was May 30, 2026 and applied to specified categories considered priorities for electronic payment availability.

These included:

• accommodation establishments, including hotels, motels, resorts, guesthouses and other legally defined accommodation structures;
• businesses providing transportation services; and
• public institutions and state-owned public companies.

The Albanian Tax Administration issued a separate notice ahead of that deadline reminding these taxpayers to install POS/POI terminals at every point of sale.

The second stage is significantly broader.

Under Article 59/3(1)(b), all other taxpayers conducting cash sales that are not included in the first group must be equipped with POS/POI terminals by December 31, 2026.

The September reminder therefore represents the final stage of the rollout rather than the introduction of a completely new requirement.

The legislation contains specific exemptions designed to avoid imposing the requirement where electronic payments would be technically impractical or disproportionate.

Taxpayers operating in areas without internet coverage are exempt from the POS/POI requirement.

Businesses that are already exempt from the obligation to issue invoices under Albania’s legislation on invoicing and the circulation monitoring system are also excluded.

A further exemption applies to smaller taxpayers, but only where several conditions are met simultaneously.

The taxpayer must:

• not be subject to VAT;
• have a personal income tax liability arising from business activity;
• operate from no more than one business location; and
• have the employment status or category of “single self-employed.”

If one of these conditions is not met, the exemption does not apply automatically.

Businesses should therefore assess eligibility carefully rather than assuming that small size alone removes the POS obligation.

The POS/POI requirement sits alongside Albania’s existing fiscalization system rather than replacing it.

Albania already requires businesses within scope to issue fiscalized invoices and communicate prescribed transaction information through the fiscalization framework. The new POS requirement concerns the availability of electronic payment infrastructure, not the replacement of the fiscal invoice or the fiscalization process itself.

This distinction is particularly relevant for retailers and POS software providers.

A POS terminal processes an electronic payment, while the retailer’s fiscalization solution continues to handle the legally required invoice and reporting process. Businesses therefore need to ensure that payment infrastructure and fiscal receipt processes operate correctly together.

For retailers with integrated payment terminals, this may require reviewing the mapping between the payment method selected in the POS software and the actual payment processed through the terminal.

The Tax Administration states that mandatory POS/POI availability is intended to provide customers with faster and more convenient payment options while improving transparency and supporting further formalization of economic activity.

Reducing reliance on cash also makes transactions more traceable and complements Albania’s broader digital tax administration strategy.

For businesses, however, compliance may involve practical preparation.

Retailers with multiple locations may need to procure additional terminals, establish acquiring agreements with banks or payment providers, verify connectivity and ensure that staff understand how electronic payments should be processed.

Businesses should also ensure that the number and placement of terminals are sufficient to satisfy the requirement that a terminal be available at each point of sale.

The December 31 deadline is particularly relevant to retailers, service providers and other businesses that continued to operate without mandatory electronic payment terminals after the first implementation phase.

Retailers should review every store and point of sale to determine whether a terminal is already available and whether an exemption applies. Multi-location businesses should not rely on a single terminal at company level if separate points of sale fall within the requirement.

The Tax Administration has specifically called on affected taxpayers to take the necessary measures before the deadline.

How will this change impact retailers?
Retailers carrying out cash sales must ensure that every relevant point of sale has a POS/POI terminal by December 31, 2026, unless a statutory exemption applies. They should review store-level payment infrastructure, terminal connectivity and POS payment configurations before the deadline.

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Ljubica Blagojević, Junior Legal Research Specialist at Fiscal Solutions

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