Fiscal law History and Challenges

Fiscalization, along with VAT, was introduced to fight against the grey economy. The first country which introduced fiscal law in regards to the use of specific fiscal devices was Italy, and second one was Greece. Italy introduced this fiscal law in 1983. Introducing fiscal law—particularly about cash registers—came from the need to avoid retailer's frauds. According to fiscal law, an appropriate fiscal receipt has to be printed and given to the customer.

Challenges of modern retailing in the fiscal context

Different aspects of fiscalization are creating big challenges.

The implementation of the fiscal laws in a particular country is already by itself a complex issue. But if we put it in the context of the modern retailing then it becomes an even more demanding and challenging topic.

As of today, modern retailing means that:

•Retail concepts are mixed. One retailer has several different store formats. Every format has some or even many different retail processes and every retail process can be influenced by the fiscal law

•Many different payment methods are used (e.g. paper money, credit cards, vouchers), each of which are usually treated differently by the fiscal law.

•Multichannel retailing is all around. Transactions can be created anytime, anywhere and mostly with different systems (e.g. POS systems, retailer websites, mobile apps).

•Marketing campaigns are very complex. To attract the customer, retailers are getting very creative. They are creating complex promotions with complex discounts. They are, in many cases, strongly influenced by the fiscal law.

•Retailers are becoming more international. At the same time, they are unifying their processes and technology. Yet the fiscal law by country is forcing the usage of certain technologies.

Sources of information

All legal systems deal with the same basic issues, but jurisdictions categorize and identify their legal topics in different ways. This means that legal systems differ between countries. Not every country has fiscal laws, and not all countries are fiscal.

Tax law involves regulations that concern value-added tax, corporate tax, and income tax. For example, tax laws in some countries may contain fiscal requirements. It depends on the specific country laws, the organization of the countries, and the distribution of responsibilities.

Fiscalization is mandatory in fiscal countries and every company that works with fiscal devices (retailers, suppliers of POS software) is obliged to fiscalize due to the impact on business elements (sales transactions, sales of diplomats, invoice, discounts, payment correction ...).

Fiscal laws change sometimes, so oversight is needed, which is hard because sources vary from country to country. Different institutions are in charge of fiscalization and how the procedure will look like. Problems with obtaining information often are:

•Different languages and speech areas that can create misunderstandings,

•A culture that is nurtured and differs from country to country,

•Not knowing where to look and who is a responsible person, because authorities in each country have differently distributed responsibilities.

Some of the sources that may help are Tax administration offices of the specific countries, different Ministries responsible for fiscalization aspects in-country, consulting fiscal companies, local layers, or some other relevant sources of information (such as fiscal portal).

For different countries, FISCAT will provide a complete solution that complies with local fiscal laws, including hardware and firmware. We have engineers who specialize in this field for more than 20 years and will be responsible for the development and the approval, of course the specific language is assisted by customer to reach the most accurate state of meaning.