Online payment for goods on a weekend: when to make it through ECR?

Sole Proprietorships engaged in online trading must have an ECR (ECR Law).

How to use the Electronic Cash Register if a customer paid for goods on a weekend or after business hours?

How to process a payment made on a weekend?

When addressing this issue, tax authorities refer to the main ECR Law. The legislation is still not fully adapted to internet payments, so only general provisions can be followed.

ECR must be used for internet banking and online acquiring transactions.

Online acquiring is payment by bank card on a website or in a mobile app through services like Portmone, LiqPay, iPay, etc.

Internet banking is a bank service for payments via the internet.

Many Sole Proprietorships engaged in online sales sign online acquiring agreements with financial intermediaries. As a result, a "Pay" option appears on the site. The customer clicks it, enters their card details, and pays for the product. This method is similar to using a POS terminal at a physical store.

The advantage is that the customer can pay at any time, even at night or on weekends.

And this raises the question: how should the entrepreneur process the payment via ECR?

The ECR Law defines a clear procedure for registering and using ECRs (Order No. 547), which states that the ECR must be used for every settlement transaction. This means the seller must issue a fiscal receipt to confirm the successful transfer and receipt of funds.

Tax authorities clarify that online payments must be processed through the ECR at the moment the funds are credited to the entrepreneur’s account. If the payment was made on a weekend, it must be processed via the ECR on the next business day.

During inspections, tax officers may request documents confirming the Sole Proprietorship’s non-working days. Therefore, it's advisable to issue an internal order defining the work schedule of the point of sale.

To fiscalize a transaction made on a weekend or after hours, the entrepreneur or cashier must:

• process the transaction through the ECR based on a bank statement no later than the next business day;

• record such transactions strictly in chronological order;

• issue a fiscal receipt no later than when the buyer receives the purchased item.

Penalties for settlement errors

The ECR Law imposes a penalty only for failure to process transactions via ECR:

1. First violation — 10% of the value of goods sold per receipt.

2. Repeated violations — 50% of the value of goods sold.

There is no penalty for late ECR processing of a transaction.

However, the tax service may impose administrative liability on the business owner for ECR violations. Article 1551 of the Code of Administrative Offenses specifies the following penalties:

1. First violation — a fine of two to ten non-taxable minimum incomes.

2. Repeated violations within one year — a fine of five to ten non-taxable minimum incomes.

Administrative fines can be imposed within two months of the violation being identified, as the limitation period is only three months.

Can all payments be processed with a single receipt?

According to the law, this is strictly prohibited. The concept of a general fiscal receipt does not exist. The ECR can only process one separate transaction at a time. Each customer must receive their own fiscal receipt confirming the sale of a specific item.

Therefore, the seller must process every online acquiring payment through the ECR. It is also mandatory to issue the fiscal receipt to the customer.

What payment method should be indicated in the ECR receipt for online acquiring?

For online acquiring, the customer pays using a bank card. The seller receives the payment through a financial intermediary. Therefore, the payment method field in the fiscal receipt must state “electronic payment instrument”.

Important note: for online acquiring, it is not required to fill out lines 10–17 in the fiscal receipt. According to Regulation No. 135, those fields are only mandatory when using a payment terminal directly integrated with the ECR.

How to process a Privat24 payment via the ECR?

On one hand, such payments technically do not require ECR processing. This is because the Sole Proprietorship does not directly accept card payments — the customer pays via internet banking, which doesn’t require an ECR.

However, the tax authorities insist that all settlement transactions, including those made with bank cards, be registered using the ECR.

In conclusion, although current legislation has gaps regarding online payments for goods, keeping track of account transactions and promptly registering them in the ECR helps avoid conflicts with the tax authorities.