Debate: Change the rules for cash registers

Review the regulations for cash registers and adapt to today's reality. This is the request sent to the Swedish Tax Agency by the Council of IT & Telecom Companies for payment and cash register systems, together with the Swedish Trade Federation, Visita and the Hairdressers' Association.

The current legislation on cash registers was developed in 2010 and the Swedish Tax Agency required traders to acquire physical control units. At that time, the retail sector looked somewhat different from today. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that reality has caught up with the Swedish Tax Agency's regulations on control units. Trade is changing at an ever-increasing pace through new technological solutions and new ways of consuming. More and more consumers are now shopping online, but the Swedish Tax Agency's regulations only regulate purchases made at a physical checkout.

Since the regulations govern the technology that traders must use for the Swedish Tax Agency's checks, they hamper technological development in the trade. They make it more difficult for new companies to start cash trading and give large companies a competitive advantage by not having to comply with the regulations as they are granted exemptions. This is unfair to smaller businesses that are currently forced to invest in a control unit. It cannot be seen as competition on equal terms, nor does it help to make it easy for businesses to do the right thing.

Within the Council for Payment and Cash Register Systems, we have developed a proposal for a new adjusted regulation that is not based on technology but, on the contrary, is technology-neutral. The aim is to enable innovations that create benefits for the user while maintaining security and improving accessibility.

We also want to remove all exemptions, especially for larger companies. We also see that our proposal takes into account trade over the Internet and works equally well regardless of how trade is conducted.

Moreover, under the current rules, all responsibility lies with the individual trader. If the cash register does not comply with the regulations, this does not affect the supplier of the cash register. We want to change this so that the supplier also becomes responsible for ensuring that the cash register it supplies complies with the regulations.

We see that control units need to be retained to some extent, for example for older cash registers, but at the same time propose that a cash register that can otherwise securely store data in the cloud should not need its own control unit. Instead, it is the supplier of the system who is responsible for ensuring that data is not lost or corrupted. The Swedish Tax Agency will then have access to data just as it does today, regardless of whether it is stored in the cloud or in a control unit.

We are also reviewing a standard for reports to make it easy to access the reports that a cash register should be able to create. The point of this is that more stakeholders than the Swedish Tax Agency should be able to easily retrieve data, such as the trader himself, auditors and accounting consultants.

Our hope is that the Swedish Tax Agency will now start work on changing the regulations so that in 2016 we will have new regulations that promote competition on equal terms.

Bengt Nilervall Business policy expert Payment issues Swedish Trade Federation

Clemens Wantschura Head of Development, CIO, CSO Visita

Ted Gemzell CEO Frisörföretagarna

Thor Jonsson Business Developer Hogia, Chairman of the Council for Payment and Cash Systems

Nils Weidstam Business policy expert IT&Telecom companies

The Council for Payment and Cash Register Systems - a member council within the IT&Telecom companies - works on issues related to payment methods in general, both regarding cash registers and various options of mobile and digital payment solutions.