France to end non-essential printing of paper receipts
France to end non-essential printing of paper receipts
Customers will still be able to ask for a printout if they want one, and receipts will still be compulsory in places such as restaurants or garages.
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Meanwhile in Germany: https://paymentandbanking.com/en/tag/bonpflicht-en/
Since January 1, 2020, the receipt requirement has been in force in Germany, and retailers and restaurateurs must issue a receipt for every transaction.
Well, it's not mandatory to print a receipt in Germany. Only the purchase itself needs to be recorded and the receipt can be issued in a digital form as well. It's up to the retailers how they want to implement this.
Let's take the two local bakeries in my neighborhood as an example. One still issues paper receipts and complains since three years about this law with witty share pics that he has to raise prices because of all the paper he needs to buy and that the government does not trust family businesses. And the other one simply provides a QR code on the cash registry's screen which I can scan within 60 seconds to download the receipt (if I want to) or he prints one if asked to do so.
In fact, I do not see big differences to the situation in France.
That works to combat tax fraud though. Cash payment is incredibly popular in Germany, partly because many stores or restaurants outright refuse card payments to avoid paying taxes.
Wait… are you saying some Germans doesn’t respect the law? Is it possible for a German?
Dont you worry, we are sure to blame the foreigners for it
How can the foreigners break the law? They are already busy stealing our jobs while also being too lazy to actually work! /s
Avoiding taxes can be a very well paying job
A German here. Believe it or not - we have a long standing problem with organized crime feeling at home here (think "you don't shit where you eat"). They mostly don't do crime in germany, but rather clean their money under the radar. It's not uncommon for, say, a pizza delivery service and several sports betting shops to close in parallel, only to reopen under the same name a few months later. These businesses prefer cash for a reason.
The ones who suffer are the small German retailers such as bakeries, butchers, kiosks, etc.. where a large number of very small amounts are traded every day. The percentage shares for card payment either reduce profits or increase prices. Great...
All this is more or less public knowledge, but not a public discussion, probably because of corruption. Sometimes you hear about journalists being imprisoned for no good reason. A fairly recent one was simply declared "insane" and put in jail for years after publishing an article about strange payments from a group of politicians. Turns out he was right, much later, when it was all too late.
That works to combat tax fraud though
If there only was a way to do something like this electronically...
There's no obligation to provide a paper "Bon," stores can just offer digital receipts by default.
The bakeries I go to usually do this (even though bakeries where crying the loudest back then). Other stores don't for some reason.
If there only was a way to do something like this electronically…
There is, the receipts don't have to be paper-based, they can be an email - REWE does that for example, if you have a loyalty card.
What they didn't manage to do is find a way to do it electronically without some sort of profile/registration.
I’m very sure that they would know a way, but there’s absolutely no incentive to do so.
The person talking about a QR code based system in another comment in this thread would suggest otherwise.
How is that supposed to combat tax fraud? Nobody keeps their receipts, and in the end if im not offered one when i dont want one, im not gonna ask for it
The receipt is printed by a certified cash register. It even has a digital signature at the bottom.
Sure, the receipt will be thrown away, but the register keeps a record. So store owners can check in their employees and tax authorities can check on the owners.
The receipt is irrelevant except for ensuring that the purchase is in record.
It's much harder to run a tax-free cash-only side business if everyone expects a receipt and the receipt printer has an audit trail.