POS System in Germany: TSE Rules for Cafés and Shops
Short answer: Germany has no general duty to use a till, and a manual cash box is legal. An electronic POS system, however, needs a BSI-certified technical security device (TSE), must issue receipts and has to be registered with the tax office via ELSTER within one month of purchase. Breaches can be fined up to 25,000 euros.
The tax inspector who checks your till usually arrives unannounced. German law, section 146b of the Fiscal Code, allows a Kassen-Nachschau during business hours, and the inspector may observe or buy something before showing ID. If you run a café, bakery, Späti or salon in Berlin, assume it can happen to you.
What they look at depends on how you take money. With an electronic POS system, it is the TSE, receipts and data export. With a manual cash box, it is your daily cash report. Both are legal. Both come with rules that are stricter than in most countries international founders know.
Is a till mandatory in Germany?
No, not so far. The Berlin Chamber of Skilled Crafts says on its cash management page that there is currently no general obligation to use an electronic cash register. That may change. The coalition agreement of the current federal government plans a mandatory till for businesses with more than 100,000 euros annual turnover, and the Federal Ministry of Finance published a draft bill for it on 7 August 2026. As of October 2026 it is a draft, not law, and the start date and exemptions may still change. Check the current state before you make a big purchase.
The open cash box, a cash drawer plus a daily cash report, therefore remains allowed. It even has an advantage. If you sell goods for cash to many customers you don’t know and use no electronic system, section 146(1) of the Fiscal Code exempts you from recording each sale individually. That relief disappears the moment you install an electronic till.
The daily report works backwards. You count the cash at closing, subtract the opening float, add back expenses paid from the till and private withdrawals, and deduct any cash you put in. What remains is the day’s takings. Every expense needs a receipt, every withdrawal a note, and the cash balance must never go negative on paper.
The downside is discipline. The daily report has to be complete and traceable, and a sloppy cash box invites the tax office to estimate your turnover. For businesses with lots of cash sales, a proper electronic till is often the safer choice, precisely because it produces the evidence automatically.
What a TSE does
Under section 146a of the Fiscal Code, every electronic recording system with a till function must be protected by a certified technical security device, the TSE (technische Sicherheitseinrichtung). It has three parts: a security module that signs every transaction, a storage medium, and a standard digital interface for exporting data to the tax office. The technical requirements are set by the BSI, the Federal Office for Information Security, in technical guidelines TR-03153, TR-03151 and TR-03116-5.
TSEs come as USB sticks, SD cards or cloud services. Tablet-based tills usually use a cloud TSE because there is no slot to plug anything into. What matters is that your POS software and the TSE work together and that the TSE has a valid BSI certificate. Get the vendor to confirm compliance in writing and file that statement.
| Criterion | Open cash box | Electronic till with TSE | Card terminal only |
|---|---|---|---|
| TSE required | usually no | ||
| Must issue receipts | payment slip | ||
| Register with tax office | yes, within one month | no, if no till function | |
| Record each sale | relief possible | via payment provider | |
| Daily cash report | Z report / end of day |
Source: Sections 146, 146a Fiscal Code (AO); Handwerkskammer Berlin
If you come from a country where Square or a similar app is all you need, note the difference. Using such an app in Germany is possible, but only in a version that works with a certified TSE and supports the official export format, called DSFinV-K. Ask before you buy the hardware.
The receipt rule
With an electronic till you must issue a receipt for every transaction and make it available to the customer. Paper isn’t required. A digital receipt via QR code or email is fine if the customer agrees. Nobody has to take it.
The tax office can exempt you from issuing receipts if you sell goods to a large number of unknown customers. That is a discretionary decision “for reasons of reasonableness” and can be revoked. For a bakery selling hundreds of rolls each morning, it is worth applying. There is no guarantee.
Registering your till with the tax office
Since 1 January 2025, section 146a(4) of the Fiscal Code requires you to notify the tax office electronically of every till and TSE you use: serial numbers, acquisition date and, where relevant, decommissioning date. The form is in Mein ELSTER, the tax authority’s online portal. You need an ELSTER account for your business, which takes a few days to set up because activation codes arrive by post.
- 1 Jan 2020TSE and receipt obligations take effect, with transition periods.
- 1 Apr 2021In Berlin, electronic tills must have a TSE by now at the latest.
- 31 Dec 2022Transition ends for old tills that could not be upgraded.
- 1 Jan 2025Till notification via ELSTER opens and becomes mandatory.
- 31 Jul 2025Deadline for tills acquired before 1 July 2025.
- OngoingNew or retired tills must be reported within one month.
Source: Section 146a AO; Federal Ministry of Finance letter of 28 June 2024; Handwerkskammer Berlin
If you took over a business with an existing till, check whether the previous owner registered it and whether the TSE is still certified. Then report it under your own tax number.
Fines and estimates
Running a till without a TSE, failing to protect it properly or failing to record correctly is an administrative offence under section 379(1) of the Fiscal Code, with fines of up to 25,000 euros under section 379(6).
The fine is often not the expensive part. If the inspector rejects your records, the tax office may estimate your turnover. Estimates rarely favour the business.
Retention matters too. Individual till records count as records under section 147 of the Fiscal Code and must be kept for ten years. Accounting vouchers such as supplier invoices must be kept for eight years since 2025. A Z report alone isn’t enough. The data has to be exportable in readable form.
Choosing a POS system
- TSE with a valid BSI certificate, note its expiry date
- DSFinV-K export available for inspections
- Digital receipts via QR code
- Interface to your bookkeeping software or tax adviser
- Written compliance statement from the vendor
- Monthly cost including TSE, support and updates
- What happens to your data if you cancel the subscription?
The last point gets overlooked. With subscription tills, the data often sits with the provider. You still have to keep it for ten years, even if you switch after three. Agree up front how and in which format you get it back.
Berlin no longer offers a grant for tills. The Digitalprämie ended in 2023. Under a Ministry of Finance circular of 22 February 2022, however, computer hardware such as a tablet or PC and software can be written off over one year. Whether a classic standalone cash register qualifies is a question for your tax adviser. More in our overview of digitalisation grants in Berlin. Advice on switching systems can be part-funded through the BAFA consulting grant.
If till, online shop and inventory need to share data and no ready-made connector exists, that becomes a software project. A team doing software development can tell you whether a custom link is worth building.
Your next step: log into Mein ELSTER and check whether your till is registered. If not, find the serial numbers of the till and the TSE and file the notification today. How till data then flows into your accounts is covered in our guide to bookkeeping software in Germany.
Questions people ask
Can I use Square or SumUp in Germany?
You can use any POS app whose German version works with a certified TSE, often a cloud TSE. Check that the provider explicitly supports KassenSichV, offers the DSFinV-K export and gives you a written compliance statement.
Is a card terminal alone a POS system?
A pure payment terminal that only processes card payments, keeps no sales records of its own and forwards transactions to the payment provider usually needs no TSE, according to the Berlin Chamber of Skilled Crafts. Once it records items and prints receipts, it counts as a till.
Do customers have to take the receipt?
No. You must issue and offer it, on paper or digitally with the customer's consent, for example as a QR code. The customer is free to leave it.
I bought my till in 2024 and never registered it. What now?
Tills acquired before 1 July 2025 had to be reported by 31 July 2025. File the notification in Mein ELSTER now, with the serial numbers of the till and the TSE.
