Cash accounting is the focus of the tax offices

4 years ago

The tax authorities are increasingly checking whether the cash management of companies is in order. If irregularities are detected, there is a risk of additional assessments and back tax payments.

Fight against tax fraud in cash transactions

Whether in restaurants, hotel bars or shops: In many areas of daily life, it is still normal to pay with cash. However, the experience of the tax authorities has shown that wherever cash transactions take place, potential revenues are not recorded. However, the legislator declared war on this “gray area”. New legal regulations, such as the “Act for Protection against Manipulation of Digital Basic Records”, have tightened the requirements for cash management.

Proper cash management

Companies should be aware that the principles of proper accounting also apply to cash management. Accordingly, each business transaction must be recorded individually, completely, correctly, in a timely and orderly manner (Section 146 (1) sentence 1 of the German Fiscal Code (AO)). Cash receipts and cash expenditures are to be recorded daily according to § 146 para. 1 sentence 2 AO. However, it may be waived to make individual records if goods are sold to a large number of persons for cash payment (§ 146 para. 1 sentence 3 AO). Exception: Companies use electronic cash register systems. In this case, the obligation to record individually applies. And this is already the case as standard in restaurants or the hotel industry, for example.

Electronic cash registers

The tax authorities are now placing higher demands on electronic cash registers in particular: All tax-relevant data must be stored. The records must be kept in full and unalterable in digital form.

Tip: The Oberfinanzdirektion (OFD) Karlsruhe summarises the most important principles of cash accounting in a leaflet. The leaflet is available on the OFD homepage .

Since 1 January 2020, only certified POS systems may be used. The changeover was a challenge, especially for cash registers in cloud systems with the so-called certified technical security module (TSE), as the necessary technical requirements were not initially in place. Therefore, affected companies were initially able to benefit from deadline extensions for the mandatory deployment date in many federal states. In the meantime, however, every company should ensure that the cash accounting meets the specifications. The tax office will take a close look at this.

When suddenly a cash audit is due

Since 2018, it has been possible for the tax office to carry out a cash audit. The cash audit complements other field audits and is carried out unannounced. It is therefore quite possible that an auditor from the tax office shows up unannounced at the company’s business premises during business hours and checks the cash accounting. The tax office also relies on digital tools for this. The POS manufacturer Gastro-MIS

announced in April 2021 that the company was able to prevail in a tender issued by the tax authorities and will now supply the new mandatory audit software for all tax offices. According to the manufacturer, the application is based on the already existing verification software AmadeusVerify and will be adapted for the special requirements of the tax authorities. For example, the auditor can then query whether the TSE and the cash register are properly registered with the tax office. Companies must therefore increasingly expect a cash audit.

This makes it all the more important to take care of your own accounting. If deficiencies are found, an auditor can make additional estimates. And that, in turn, can lead to back tax payments.