Source: delo.ua
The possibility of using any devices with Internet access as an alternative to cash registers has been discussed in Ukraine for two years. Everyone supports this idea in words: both the parliament, the government and businesses. But it still ends in talk. Delo.UA figured out how the things are.
After the next step of the Verkhovna Rada to increase fiscal control over sales of home appliances and electronics with warranty certificates, a number of entrepreneurs, experts and some deputies supported the simplification of the use of payment transaction registrars (PTRs).
We are talking about the adoption of the draft law No.4117 on liberalization of cash payments, which has been in the parliament for more than a year and a half. Representatives of business associations and subject matter experts have been arranging round tables and writing letters to the head of the parliament’s tax committee Nina Yuzhanina, who publicly promised to develop an alternative draft law and submit it to the parliament by July 1, 2017. It has been six months, but such a desirable liberalization of the PTR still got nowhere.
At the same time, the Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman gave the instruction to the Minister of Economic Development to develop regulatory changes and simplify the system of cash registers.
They want to control, but can not systematize this control
According to expert estimates, in Ukraine, at least half of various cash transactions are carried out without PTRs. It is difficult to track the ready cash flows and that creates opportunities for the shadow economy and the underreporting of real cash assets turnovers by business.
It is obvious that the state is interested (or at least should be) in making the economy formal and monitoring cash turnovers. In addition, cash registers create additional barriers for selling contraband and counterfeit goods, and therefore the area of PTR’s application is gradually expanding.
But the difficulty is that actual business inspections regarding compliance with the cash payment procedure, and the use of PTR is the most corrupt aspect in the State Fiscal Service.
Even the Ministry of Finance, which is directly responsible for the work of tax bodies, admits this fact.
However, it is corrupt not least because of the complicated administration of cash registers. After all, even with the great desire of entrepreneurs to comply with a law, there are so many requirements that something can be violated unintentionally.
Everyone supports, but nothing happens
The first argument to liberalize PTRs is that it is necessary to reduce the pressure on business, make things easier to them and cut the cost of cash registers. Both parliamentarians, the government and experts are speaking about that.
But even with the general support, the process of refinement of the draft law No.4117 is actually blocked. It passed its first reading a year ago – in October 2016. And one would think that they can not delay its refinement until the second reading and the final adoption. Especially considering that absolutely all sellers of domestic appliances and electronics with warranty certificates (including simplified tax system taxpayers and online stores) have been obliged to sell goods only through a cash register and provide receipts for tax purposes since May 2017.
But since that time, the legislators have not made any progress. The last meeting of the working group took place seven months ago – in March 2017, but it also was unsuccessful. According to Nina Yuzhanina, initiators of the document could not succeed in reaching a single concept of digital PTRs. In addition, according to the tax committee member Tetyana Ostrikova, the issues on what data transmission technology to use, who should own intellectual and property rights for it and whether electronic or digital signatures should be used still remain unresolved.
The Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Finance came to help the hesitant deputies.
Since May 2017, the working group consisting of “all persons who deal with cash registers” – business owners, public associations and state bodies, in particular, the National Bank, the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection and SFS – have worked on a large package of amendments to regulatory and legislative acts. According to Ilya Neskhodovsky, the expert of “Reanimation Package of Reforms”, the amendments prepared by the working group are currently waiting to be approved by all interested stakeholders.
Less papers, more understandable procedure
According to the working group’s participants, they prepared two packages of changes for business. As Myroslav Laba, the BRDO’s analyst, says, the liberalization can be partly implemented in the near future without amending legislation. It is about the procedure for registration of PTRs in supervisory bodies.
“Today, an entrepreneur needs to collect a whole set of documents to register a cash register. Most of them comes as a surprise. These are the documents for a modem, an ownership certificate for a cash register, an agreement of a cash registers producer with the service center, documents on the premises where the PTR will be installed. Why all this?” Myroslav Laba wonders and adds that now you can find online ads on providing paid services for PTR registration in a tax agency. Such services cost 700-1,500 hryvnas.
Therefore, the working group proposes to make amendments to subordinate acts at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers and simplify the procedure as much as possible.
“It should be enough that an entrepreneur submits one application that he would like to use a cash register through his electronic payer’s cabinet,” Ilya Neskhodovsky says.
It may be possible to do so in 2018. “The task is set. From January 1, 2018, the e-taxpayer cabinet will be equipped with more functions. We hope that this feature will also be implemented,” the RPR exert says.
Another issue that can be solved quickly is removing the need to keep payment transaction records. Every day, entrepreneurs electronically submit information on all transactions to the SFS, but the laws oblige them also to duplicate all data in paper payment transaction records. “This is an obsolete provision, it has not been revised since the launch of transmitting information about cash register receipts to the Fiscal Service’s web center,” Myroslav Laba explains.
Soon: smartphones instead of PTRs and electronic cash receipts instead of paper ones
The second package of amendments to the draft law of the Ministry of Finance is more radical. It duplicates key proposals of the draft law No.4117 and broadens them proposing to include distributed point of sale systems into the existing list of PTR types.
POS systems should operate as follows: there is a terminal and a server networked via the Internet, and special software equipped with authentication tools perform fiscal functions. Payments documents, reporting receipts for tax purposes and control tapes are generated electronically and have a POS system’s digital signature.
A seller just need to send transactions information to the server and obtain the confirmation that the data was recorded.
This will allow entrepreneurs to use “handy” devices with Internet access such as smartphones, tablets or laptops instead of classic cash registers.
Ilya Neskhodovsky adds that for this purpose, it is necessary to amend not only the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers aimed specifically at classic devices, but also the legislation. This work will take significantly more time, so we can expect that the draft law will be prepared in the beginning-in mid-2018.
In addition, the working group promises to launch an “effective instrument to monitor entrepreneurs” – a so-called cashback mechanism. This means the online registry of checking receipts, where buyers can check the availability of their documents in the central SFS database.
“If there is no cash register receipt or this receipt is not for tax purposes, the entrepreneur’s activity will be inspected. And the buyer receives a bonus – a compensation in the amount of full product’s value. So we will make the customers interested in demanding cash register receipts and monitor the activity of sellers,” the RPR expert explains the innovations.
Supporters of the liberalization of cash registers believe that the further dialogue and the political will of the government authorities will be a way out of this situation. “In November, we together with our partners will hold the Second Economic Forum devoted to the de-shadowing of the economy,” the executive director of the Ukrainian Association of Direct Sales, member of the coalition “For unshadowing of economy” Nadiya Bedrychuk says. “Representatives of more than 50 business associations will require clear, effective and coordinated government’s actions at all stages of the launch of launching the de-shadowing process: creating a mechanism and a legislative framework to introduce third-generation PTRs (smartphones instead of cash registers), introducing the cashback mechanism to stimulate consumers to verify the authenticity of their receipts, eliminating excessive reporting and simplifying procedures. In addition, the de-shadowing requires implementing a real reform of the SFS, introducing non-corrupt customs and establishing a Service for Financial Investigations, which private business hopes for.”