Hunting down illegal POS
The tax administration will create a register for all card terminals used across the economy
The tax administration (AADE) is proceeding to identify businesses that use card terminals (POS) illegally, obliging all businesses and professionals to declare the terminals they have. Essentially, AADE is creating a register similar to the one for property owners who are active in the short-term rental market and have declared the properties they rent through online platforms.
Therefore, all businesses will be obliged to declare the POS they have in the register to be created. In the coming days, the tax administration is expected to issue the relevant decision on the creation of a POS register.
In addition to the terminals that cooperate with Greek banks, any POS located abroad will also be declared. It is noted that it is not illegal for a business to have a foreign POS (installed by a foreign payment service provider), as long as this is declared to the tax office.
During the period of capital controls, tricksters used foreign terminals to transfer money to foreign accounts. In fact, many POS from Bulgaria had been identified. Now, however, foreign terminals can be used, as long as they are declared in the registry as mentioned above.
The creation of the register was announced by the governor of AADE, Giorgos Pitsilis, and the measure comes as a continuation of the efforts made to connect cash registers with POS and extend them to all economic activities. According to the plan, all involved should declare their POS by the end of the month.
With this process, which is the first step for the interconnection of cash registers with POS, the Ministry of National Economy and Finance and AADE will know how many POS are active and of course their number.
Specifically, POS providers – i.e. payment processors – will be the first to send data. Next will be the producers and maintenance teams. Businesses and professionals will be the last to do so. In fact, they will be asked to declare whether the information submitted by the above two categories is correct and to add any missing data.
