Cash register obligation 2027: the POS mandate arrives, the receipt mandate goes

What did the cabinet decide on July 15, 2026?

The decision is part of a larger federal bureaucracy-reduction package and bundles two changes to cash management. First, a cash register obligation is coming: from 2027, businesses above €100,000 in annual revenue are no longer to work with an open cash drawer but must use an electronic POS with a certified technical security element (TSE). Second, the receipt issuance obligation is being relaxed: handing out an unrequested paper receipt is to be dropped first for amounts under €30 and later entirely; a digital receipt will then suffice. Anyone who wants a paper receipt will still get one.

The background is the experience from cash register inspections: in cash-intensive businesses with an open cash drawer, auditors regularly found irregularities, from a missing ability to reconcile the till to unrecorded transactions. The cash register obligation is meant to close this gap, while the receipt relaxation in return saves paper, costs and bureaucracy. The phased abolition of the paper receipt obligation alone is expected to relieve the economy by around €89 million per year according to the draft.

Who is affected by the cash register obligation 2027?

The threshold is €100,000 in annual revenue, based on the total revenue of the business, cash and card revenue combined. Anyone above it is to ring up sales electronically from January 1, 2027. Below the threshold, the open cash drawer remains permitted.

For shoe, fashion and sports retail, little changes in most stores: a brick-and-mortar specialist store is practically always above €100,000 in annual revenue and has long been ringing up sales electronically. The decision is still relevant, because it confirms the direction cash management is heading overall: an electronic POS with TSE, digital receipts and systems reported to the tax office as the normal case.

What must a POS be able to do from 2027?

The requirements for the electronic POS itself are not new; they have applied for years and are merely extended to more businesses by the cash register obligation. Three points have to be right:

What changes about the receipt obligation?

Since 2020, a receipt has had to be created for every transaction and offered to the customer. The draft keeps this receipt obligation but removes the unrequested paper issuance: initially for small amounts under €30, and in a second stage entirely. The receipt is still created with every sale and provided digitally, for example as a QR code at the POS or by email. On request, the printed receipt remains available.

For retailers this means: the POS should be able to issue receipts digitally, because the digital receipt is moving from special case to standard. How this already works in a legally compliant way today, from QR code to WhatsApp, is covered in the article on the digital receipt.

To the article: digital receipt via QR code, email, SMS and WhatsApp

From when does all this apply?

The cabinet decision is a government draft; the law still has to pass the Bundestag and Bundesrat. The process is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, and the cash register obligation is scheduled in the draft for January 1, 2027. Details such as thresholds and effective dates may therefore still change during the legislative process. Cash itself remains a fixed part of retail: according to the Bundesbank, 45% of all purchases in 2025 were paid in cash, and at EU level, under the planned EU cash regulation an obligation to accept cash is even under negotiation.

What should retailers do now?

1. 1
   Check the POS. Does every POS have a valid, certified TSE and does it deliver the DSFinV-K export? For hardware TSEs, also check the certificate expiry date.
2. 2
   Check the report to the tax office. Are all POS systems reported with their TSE via Mein ELSTER, per business location? Existing POS systems had to be reported by July 31, 2025.
3. 3
   Set up the digital receipt. Can the POS issue receipts as a QR code, by email or messenger? Then the receipt changeover is already done before it becomes mandatory.
4. 4
   Ensure updates. TSE reporting obligation, e-invoicing, receipt reform: the requirements keep changing. Clarify whether your software delivers such changes as regular updates or whether every adaptation becomes a project of its own.

As of July 19, 2026. Basis: government draft of a law introducing a cash register obligation, combating tax evasion and further digitalising tax law (cabinet decision of July 15, 2026), not yet enacted. Legal basis of the TSE and receipt obligations: Section 146a AO. Sources: heise online, Tagesspiegel, FAQ of the Federal Ministry of Finance on the receipt issuance obligation and Bundesbank, Payment Behaviour in Germany 2025. This article is for orientation and does not replace tax or legal advice.