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POS terminals and electronic cash registers: the 5 per cent tolerance does not cover failure to link

The corrective decree introduces a 5 per cent non-punishability threshold for discrepancies between electronic payments accepted and transactions recorded. It is not an amnesty: a retailer who has not registered the link between the POS terminal and the electronic cash register remains exposed to a penalty of between 1,000 and 4,000 euro, which the decree has left unchanged.

Since 12 August 2026 a 5 per cent tolerance threshold has applied to the penalties which underpin the recording and transmission of daily takings collected through electronic payment instruments. The threshold concerns only the discrepancy between the transactions recorded and the payments accepted: it does not concern the obligation to carry out the link itself, which continues to attract a penalty of between 1,000 and 4,000 euro, untouched by the corrective decree. The distinction is worth stating at the outset, because the two breaches rest on different provisions, attract different amounts and produce different consequences, and the second has not been mitigated.

The obligation and when it took effect

Article 2(3) of Legislative Decree No 127 of 5 August 2015, as introduced by Article 1(74) to (76) of Law No 207 of 30 December 2024, requires that daily takings be recorded and transmitted using instruments which ensure «full integration and interaction between the process of recording the takings and the electronic payment process». To that end, «the hardware or software instrument through which electronic payments are accepted shall at all times be linked» to the instrument by which the takings are recorded and transmitted. Article 1(77) of the same Law sets the effective date at 1 January 2026.

The operating rules are set out in the order of the Director of the Italian Revenue Agency of 31 October 2025. The link is not physical and does not require the device to be replaced or adapted: it is a logical pairing, registered through the «Fatture e Corrispettivi» portal by associating the serial number of the electronic cash register, already listed in the Tax Register, with the identifying data of the payment instruments held by the retailer. The service has been available since 5 March 2026; for instruments already in use as at 1 January 2026, or activated by 31 January 2026, the forty-five-day deadline expired on 20 April 2026.

Registration of the pairing is accompanied, however, by a daily routine, and it is from that routine that the data subsequently compared derive: when the commercial document is issued, the correct method of payment and the corresponding amount must be indicated, using functions already available on the device. A pairing correctly registered, but accompanied by commercial documents recording «cash» where the customer paid by card, produces precisely the discrepancy that the new threshold measures.

Those who have not complied are not thereby time-barred: the obligation remains and should be discharged now. Until the breach has been formally established, voluntary correction under Article 13 of Legislative Decree No 472 of 18 December 1997 remains available, reducing the penalty on a scale that tapers over time. Whether that remedy is available, and to what extent, must be assessed case by case. On one point, however, the position is clear-cut: for failure to link, the reduction otherwise granted to a taxpayer who regularises after the breach has been formally established does not apply, because Article 13(1)(b-quater) expressly excludes breaches of Article 11(5) of Legislative Decree No 471 of 18 December 1997. The window therefore closes with the first inspection.

What the corrective decree introduced

Article 33 of Legislative Decree No 148 of 7 August 2026, published in Official Gazette No 185 of 11 August 2026, Ordinary Supplement No 30, and in force since 12 August 2026, inserts a non-punishability clause: the penalty does not apply where «between the number of transactions settled by electronic payment, recorded and stored for the purposes of transmitting the daily takings data, and the number of electronic payments accepted there is a discrepancy of no more than 5 per cent».

Three points matter more than may at first appear. The first: the comparison is between the number of transactions, not between amounts. A difference that is modest in value but spread across many transactions may exceed the threshold; a single transaction of significant value, by contrast, counts no more than any other.

The second concerns where the clause was placed. The threshold was inserted into the provision penalising the failure to record and transmit data, or the late or inaccurate recording and transmission of such data, where the breach has not affected the correct settlement of the tax. That provision is Article 11(2-quinquies) of Legislative Decree No 471 of 18 December 1997, which provides for a penalty of 100 euro per transmission, subject to a ceiling of 1,000 euro per quarter. The threshold was inserted into the provision on suspension of business activity as well. The clause leaves outside its scope the case where the discrepancy points to takings not recorded with an effect on the tax: in that case Article 6(2-bis) of the same decree applies, setting the penalty at seventy per cent of the tax corresponding to the amount not recorded or transmitted, and the 5 per cent clause has no bearing on that provision.

The third point weighs most heavily on smaller businesses: the provision does not state the period over which the discrepancy is to be measured. The reference to the «transmission of the daily takings data», combined with a penalty which Article 11(2-quinquies) sets by reference to each transmission, points towards the individual daily transmission. If the measurement is made daily, however, in a business with twenty electronic payments a day a single misrecorded transaction exhausts the entire margin. No official clarification has been issued on the point to date, and the matter is best treated as an open question rather than a settled one.

The clause was inserted at four distinct points: Article 11(2-quinquies) and Article 12(2) of Legislative Decree No 471 of 1997 and, in parallel, Articles 36(6) and 37(3) of the consolidated text on administrative and criminal tax penalties enacted by Legislative Decree No 173 of 5 November 2024. The parallel amendment is a matter of timing rather than of competing regimes: only Legislative Decree No 471 of 1997 applies today, because Article 102 of the consolidated text, as currently in force, defers the date from which its own provisions take effect to 1 January 2027. The legislature amended the consolidated text at the same time so that the tolerance survives the change of regime.

What the tolerance does not cover

This is the practical point. The 5 per cent threshold was not inserted into Article 11(5) of Legislative Decree No 471 of 1997, which is the provision on failure to link as such: the third sentence of that paragraph provides that the penalty laid down in the first sentence «shall also apply where the hardware or software instrument through which the electronic payments referred to in Article 2(3), second sentence, of Legislative Decree No 127 of 5 August 2015 are accepted has not been linked». The penalty so referred to is that of between 1,000 and 4,000 euro laid down for failure to install the devices.

A retailer who has not registered the pairing in the portal therefore finds no shelter in the corrective decree. The reason is logical before it is legal: the tolerance presupposes that the link exists, and measures the divergence between two quantities. Where the link is absent, there is nothing to compare, and the breach is not the discrepancy but the failure to comply.

The penalty that bears on the business itself

Article 12(2) of Legislative Decree No 471 of 1997 provides for suspension of the licence or authorisation to carry on the business, or of the business activity itself, for a period of between three days and one month. The condition is that, within a five-year period, four separate breaches committed on different days have been formally established. The period rises to between one and six months where the aggregate amount of the takings in question exceeds 50,000 euro, and the suspension order is immediately enforceable. The provision is expressly extended to the cases in Article 2(1), (1-bis), (2) and (3) of Legislative Decree No 127 of 2015: therefore also to paragraph 3, that is, to electronic payments. This is no minor mitigation, because the penalty bears not on assets but on the very ability to continue trading.

It is into this paragraph 2 that the corrective decree inserted the same 5 per cent tolerance. It should be said, however, that paragraph 2 extends to the whole of Article 2(3) of Legislative Decree No 127 of 2015, which also encompasses the linking obligation. How the clause operates on that side, in relation to findings concerning the link rather than the discrepancy, is a question which the text does not resolve and on which no administrative practice has yet emerged. On the Article 11(5) side, by contrast, the position is settled: no tolerance.

Who need not link anything

Not every terminal must be linked, and here the answers published by the Italian Revenue Agency, last updated on 25 March 2026, are more useful than the provision itself. The obligation does not arise where the POS terminal is used exclusively to collect payments for transactions exempt from the obligation to issue a commercial document; in that event the terminal must nonetheless be flagged using the «POS non collegati» function, failing which it will continue to appear among those awaiting pairing. If, on the other hand, the retailer issues the commercial document anyway, although not required to, the exemption falls away and the link becomes due.

The link is also due where the same terminal collects payments for transactions certified by a commercial document alongside exempt transactions, and where it serves both transactions covered by a commercial document and invoiced transactions. The obligation falls away only where every transaction collected through that terminal is certified by invoice or is among the exempt transactions.

Two recurring clarifications are worth recalling, because they bear on the daily completion of the commercial document. Bank transfers are not among the instruments to be linked, but the commercial document must nonetheless record them as a form of electronic payment. Cheques, whether ordinary cheques or banker’s drafts, are to be recorded as cash payments. The instruments to be linked also include so-called SoftPOS applications, which turn a smartphone or tablet into a contactless terminal, and virtual instruments used for payments over the internet.

The deadline that returns every month

The deadline of 20 April 2026 concerned the first application and has now passed. Under the regime now in force, the obligation is a recurring one and must be managed as such: for every new POS terminal, every change and every decommissioning, registration must be carried out between the sixth day of the second month following the month of the event and the last working day of that same month. A terminal activated in April 2026, to take the Agency’s own example, had to be linked between 6 and 30 June 2026. It is a narrow window, opening and closing within the same month: that is the interval in which oversights cluster, particularly where the terminal has been replaced by the acquiring institution without the change being perceived as a matter of tax significance.

In practice

• Immediately, before anything else — check in the «Fatture e Corrispettivi» portal that every POS terminal in use is paired with the instrument by which the takings are recorded and transmitted, whether an electronic cash register or the «Documento Commerciale on line» web procedure. This is the check that guards against the penalty for failure to link as such, of between 1,000 and 4,000 euro, on which the new tolerance has no bearing whatsoever.
• In the same session — confirm that the list offered by the procedure is complete. Terminals that do not appear are entered manually, stating the Terminal ID, the tax code and name of the acquiring institution, together with the number of the acquiring contract. The typical case is the POS terminal held in the franchisor‘s name and used in the franchisee‘s outlet, where the link is due all the same.
• In the same place — use the «POS non collegati» function to flag terminals that have been returned, those not held in one’s own name and those used only for exempt transactions, so that they are removed from the list of terminals to be paired.
• Every day, at the till — record on the commercial document the method of payment actually used and the corresponding amount. This is the daily discipline that produces the figure against which the tolerance is measured, and the most common source of divergence.
• Every month, for those who keep the books — manage the window running from the sixth day to the last working day of the month, covering activations, changes and decommissionings from the second preceding month. A recurring reminder is a less costly precaution than a finding.
• Periodically, for the retailer — compare the number of electronic payments accepted, as shown in the acquiring institution’s statement, with the number of transactions settled by electronic payment recorded and transmitted by the device, bearing in mind that the tolerance is measured on numbers and not on amounts. Divergence arises above all from reversals, tips, mixed payments and cancelled transactions.
• On a continuing basis — retain the acquiring institution’s documentation showing the Terminal ID and the acquiring contract: in the event of an inspection, that is what demonstrates the correctness of the pairing and the date from which the terminal came into use.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 5 per cent tolerance also apply to breaches committed before 12 August 2026?

The governing principle is Article 3(2) of Legislative Decree No 472 of 18 December 1997, under which, save where the law provides otherwise, no one may be subjected to penalties for an act which a later law does not treat as a punishable breach. Where the penalty has already been imposed by a final measure, the residual debt is extinguished, but sums already paid may not be reclaimed. The final provisions of Legislative Decree No 148 of 2026 contain no express derogation from the principle on this point. It is nonetheless advisable not to treat that outcome as settled, but to assert the point in the appropriate forum: by way of defence submissions where an inspection report has been served, or by an application for administrative review or an appeal within the time limits where the measure has been issued and is not yet final. In every case the status of the measure should be checked before any payment is made.

Can the link be delegated to one’s adviser?

For the electronic cash register, yes: registration may also be carried out by intermediaries holding an authorisation for the «Accreditamento e censimento dispositivi» service of the «Fatture e Corrispettivi» portal. The authorisation shifts the mechanical performance of the task, however, not the liability: the penalty for failure to link continues to fall on the retailer. Linking payment instruments to the «Documento Commerciale on line» web procedure, by contrast, cannot be delegated and must be carried out by the retailer directly, because use of that procedure does not admit of delegation.

Can a single POS terminal be linked to more than one electronic cash register?

Yes, the link may be a multiple one. A physical terminal may be paired with more than one electronic cash register provided that the outlet address is the same; a virtual instrument may also be linked to electronic cash registers used at different outlets. The converse also holds: more than one instrument, whether physical or virtual, may be linked to a single electronic cash register.

The corrective decree softens a penalty regime that had proved disproportionate in practice, and it does so where the excess was most apparent: the natural divergence between payments accepted and transactions recorded, which no retailer can eliminate. The tolerance is not an amnesty, however; it leaves at least two questions open — the period over which it is measured and its reach on the suspension side — and it does not touch the underlying obligation: the link must be carried out, kept up to date at every change and documented. Anyone who reads no further than the headline risks filing away as discharged an obligation that has remained wholly intact.

On the rules for certifying takings that accompany this obligation, see our article on the electronic commercial document; on the time limits and reductions available where an omitted obligation is put right voluntarily, our guide to deadlines and voluntary correction; on the documentary precautions to observe in the event of an inspection, our guide to tax audits.

• Legislative Decree No 127 of 5 August 2015, Article 2(3), as introduced by Article 1(74) to (76) of Law No 207 of 30 December 2024; the effective date of 1 January 2026 is set by Article 1(77) of the same Law.
• Legislative Decree No 148 of 7 August 2026, Article 33 (Official Gazette No 185 of 11 August 2026, Ordinary Supplement No 30), in force since 12 August 2026 pursuant to its own Article 37.
• Legislative Decree No 471 of 18 December 1997 — Article 6(2-bis) (penalty of seventy per cent of the tax), Article 11(2-quinquies) (100 euro per transmission, up to 1,000 euro per quarter), Article 11(5), third sentence (1,000 to 4,000 euro for failure to link) and Article 12(2) (suspension of business activity).
• Legislative Decree No 173 of 5 November 2024 — consolidated text on administrative and criminal tax penalties, Articles 36(6) and 37(3); the date from which its provisions take effect is set at 1 January 2027 by Article 102.
• Legislative Decree No 472 of 18 December 1997, Article 3(2) and (3) (more favourable later law) and Article 13(1), in particular point (b-quater) (voluntary correction and breaches excluded from the reduction after formal establishment).
• Order of the Director of the Italian Revenue Agency of 31 October 2025, together with the related press releases of 31 October 2025 and 5 March 2026.
• Italian Revenue Agency, FAQ «Collegamento POS-RT», last updated on 25 March 2026.