New regulations for a modern cash register developed with the help of industry
In 2014, the Swedish Tax Agency drew up new regulations for how receipt data from cash registers should be stored for control purposes. The proposal became too complicated and was not implemented. Now there is a new proposal that has gone out for reply to public consultation. The difference is that the new proposal has been developed together with the Swedish Tax Agency and the Council for Payment and Cash Register Systems within IT&Telecom companies. Nils Weidstam, business policy expert at IT&Telecom companies describes the background to the collaboration.
Why was a new proposal needed?
Since 2010, there has been a cash register law that requires the Swedish Tax Agency to be able to check the receipts created by the cash register. In order for the Swedish Tax Agency to be able to carry out its checks, a cash register had to be connected to a control box that kept information about the receipts created. Although it wasn't that long ago, a lot has happened since then, both in terms of technological developments and our payment behaviors. In Sweden, over 80% of all purchases are made with some form of credit or debit card. In addition, completely new payment methods have been added, such as Swish, Apple and Google pay. In addition, checkouts have become increasingly web-based. As the original solution was adapted to the fact that we trade with cash, the need for new regulations has existed for a number of years.
The regulations developed in 2014 did not work. Why not?
The Swedish Tax Agency itself drew up new regulations that were to be adapted to more modern funds. This was done without any support from the industry. Unfortunately, it became far too complicated, which meant that they were never implemented. The Swedish Tax Agency itself realized that it was too complicated and concluded that new regulations needed to be developed.
New regulations are now available, how were they developed?
As the need became stronger and stronger over time, a new approach was taken in 2019, where the Swedish Tax Agency collaborated with the industry in the development process. New regulations were developed in dialog with the Council for Payment and Cash Systems. The regulations are now complete and, as the industry has been involved in the process, they are adapted to the new requirements. In particular, the control box has been replaced by a server-based solution, i.e. control data can be placed in the cloud.
What happens next?
The new regulations have been in reply to public consultation and have been approved since June 2. Now they will be sent for reply to public consultation within the EU with the hope of implementation by the end of 2020. As the industry has been involved in the process, the hope is of course that the implementation will be both effective and easy for traders.
Read more:
Council for Payment and Cash Management Systems