The UK government announced in its Budget that it will introduce mandatory software standards for point-of-sale systems, both fixed and mobile, Finextra reports. The aim is to tackle electronic sales suppression, meaning software that deletes or alters transactions to cut tax bills. Tax authority HMRC will work with the industry and publish a technical consultation next summer setting out how the rules will work. The payments industry welcomed the plan, calling for transaction logs that cannot be tampered with.

What it means: Britain is moving towards a model Greece knows well. Here, fiscal devices, the mandatory link between cash registers and card terminals, and electronic transmission of data to the tax authority AADE already serve the same purpose: a sale should not be able to disappear from the books. The difference is that the UK wants to regulate the POS software itself, with standards for how transactions are recorded and protected, rather than relying only on dedicated hardware. For retail and hospitality software vendors active in or planning to expand into the UK, certification will become a condition for market access, and the 2027 consultation will show the cost. The Greek experience has shown that such measures raise declared revenue but load small businesses with equipment and setup costs. The British plan also shows that the trend across Europe is towards digital, real-time recording of sales, so till system suppliers would do well to design solutions with immutable logs now. The measure is at an early stage and has no implementation timetable yet.

Read the original on Finextra

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