A matter of a few months is the interconnection of cash registers with POS, which will automatically mean the closing of a big “black hole” for the state’s tax revenues and a decisive step to limit tax evasion.

The Ministry of Finance estimates that this move alone will significantly reduce the VAT gap and will be an essential step towards achieving the goal, which is to reduce it to 9% in 2026 from approximately 15% today. This practically means additional income for the state coffers of the order of 2.5 billion euros, from uncollected VAT and from income tax.

What does the interfacing of POS with cash registers mean in practice? That absolutely no transaction will be able to be carried out without informing the Tax Office, that is, every customer who pays with a credit card will automatically be issued a receipt by the cash register and the AADE information systems will also be updated in real time.

As a result, it will be almost impossible to falsify information, hide income and not pay VAT. The work of interfacing is extremely complex and requires a large amount of work, from all involved.

As he has recently stated on ERT, commander of AADE Giorgos Pitsilis, “the interconnection of the cash registers with AADE, which has already been done for about a year and a half, is another matter. This summer we took out a lot of steps to check exactly whether the cashiers transmit the information to the AADE, and very strict fines and business closures were imposed on the offenders. And he continued by emphasizing “the second step is the interconnection of the POS with the cashiers. A much more complex, much more factorial project, in which the AADE, the businesses and the companies that make the various software are involved.”

Based on the planning that exists at the moment and from the Ministry of National Economy and Finances they declare absolute faith that the timetable will be followed with religious reverence and no new extension will be needed, so that from March 1st the interconnection of the cash registers with the POS.

This practically means that from this date onwards, card payments will automatically be issued with a retail receipt. By interfacing cash registers with POS, auditing will be even easier and more meaningful, as in real time auditors will be able to see charges at the POS, receipts at the cash register and inflows to the bank account to which the POS is connected.

The tax administration emphatically notes that with the interconnection of cash registers with POS, payment card acceptance terminals (EFT POS) will not work autonomously for debit transactions. That is, in any transaction with a credit card, it will not be allowed to enter the payment amount by typing in the POS. The amount will come out of the cash register.

How to check with the new system:

1. The transaction starts from the Tax Electronic Mechanism (FEM), i.e. the modern cash registers for retail transactions. The operator (employee or shopkeeper) selects “card payment” and the FIM sends a relevant request to the EFT/POS card payment system.

2. The EFT/POS system automatically confirms receipt of the request to the Tax Mechanism, placing it on hold for the result.

3. The POS connects to the payment service provider (bank or equivalent payment service) and receives information if there was (a) online approval or offline approval or offline rejection or interruption of the transaction.

4. The EFT/POS system responds to the FIM with the final result: rejection or approval. At the same time as the approval, it also sends the basic details of the transaction (such as transaction number, approval code, etc.), but also data for printing the receipt from FIM.

5. The Tax Mechanism – FIM confirms receipt of the final result. In the event that this confirmation, for any reason, is not documented by the EFT/POS system, then the EFT/POS creates a relevant marking for the non-processing of the transaction by the Tax Mechanism.

Finally, it should be mentioned that based on a recent announcement by the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, “soon, in cooperation with the Information Society, they will restart the aid programs for the acquisition or replacement of POS, old tax mechanisms, etc. and they will be enriched with the new technological solutions covered by the relevant decisions of the AADE commander”.