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Employer's Guide
Employer's Guide
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Nils Weidstam

Distance contract requirements are unreasonable

Payment and cashier systems Digitization
When a business contract is concluded at a distance, the sale of goods or services for cash - or by credit card - does not need to be recorded in a cash register. As a trader, it is important to know when a sale of goods or services does - or does not - need to be recorded in a cash register. Dhis raises the question of what conditions must be met for a contract to be considered a distance contract, i.e. that the obligation to pay cash does not apply.

The Swedish Tax Agency has made the following statement regarding when a distance contract is considered to apply to the purchase of goods or services:

  • The contract must be concluded under a distance contracting scheme organized by the trader
  • The parties may not be physically present at the same time when the contract is concluded
  • The communication shall be exclusively by one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time of conclusion of the contract.

In recent years, the possibility for buyers and sellers to conclude distance contracts, with a system organized by the trader, has evolved in line with new technologies. With mobile phones, tablets and mobile payment systems, contracts can be concluded almost anywhere. This raises the question of whether or not the parties should be considered 'physically present'.

Example

How will the trader know where the customer stands. The customer has used the distance contract system organized by the trader.

How will the customer know if the contract cannot be defined as a distance contract based on their location?

These examples are self-defeating.

  • The trader has no possibility to determine the position of the buyer
  • Similarly, the contracting authority has no reasonable way of knowing whether distance contracts apply.

TechSweden's recommendation

It appears that the requirement that the parties may not be physically present at the same time will lead to ambiguity and interpretation problems. TechSverige therefore proposes that the requirement that the parties may not be physically present at the same time be removed.

TechSverige has responded to the consultation Proposal for a position on the application of the exemption from the cash register obligation in distance contracts. You can read the consultation response here.