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Guide · Till notification

Reporting a till to the German tax office: the ELSTER notification step by step

Updated · Rotomal

Anyone in Germany using an electronic till with a TSE must report it to the tax office under section 146a(4) AO, electronically through Mein ELSTER with the form for notifying electronic recording systems. New and decommissioned systems are reported within one month; systems bought before 1 July 2025 were due by 31 July 2025. All systems of a business location go into one notification, and rented or leased tills count.

Deadlines

SituationDeadline
System bought before 1 July 2025by 31 July 2025 (passed, report now)
System bought from 1 July 2025within one month of purchase
System decommissionedwithin one month of decommissioning
New till, move or additional till at a locationupdated notification for that location

Which devices are reported

  • Cash registers and PC tills with a TSE.
  • Tablet and app tills.
  • Scales with a till function.
  • Inventory, hotel or practice software with a till module.
  • Rented or leased systems count as bought ones.
  • EU taximeters and odometers without a TSE were exempt from reporting until 31 December 2025 at the latest.
  • An open cash box is not an electronic system and is not reported.

Which data you need

  • Business name and tax number, address of the business location.
  • Manufacturer, model, software and software version of the system.
  • Serial number of the system, meaning hardware and software together, not just one of them.
  • TSE type and serial number, a 64-character hexadecimal code (in the DSFinV-K export as TSE_SERIAL).
  • Dates of purchase, start of use and TSE activation.
  • For decommissioning: date and reason.

How to fill in the notification

  • Log in to Mein ELSTER with the certificate linked to the business's tax number.
  • Open the form Mitteilung über elektronische Aufzeichnungssysteme (§ 146a Absatz 4 AO).
  • Create a separate notification for each business location and list all its systems there.
  • A decommissioning can only be reported after the purchase has been. If needed, give both in one notification.
  • Submit and keep the transmission log.
  • For many devices, Mein ELSTER also accepts an XML import; one notification can hold up to 1,000 systems.

According to IHK Pfalz, a notification by email or on paper has no effect. Some tax firms and till vendors offer to submit the notification for you.

What if the notification is missing

Of section 146a, section 379 AO only fines breaches of subsection 1: not using a system or using it wrongly, not protecting it with a TSE, or selling non-compliant systems. The reporting duty in subsection 4 is not listed there, and the government bill for the Second Cash Register Act does not add it. Claims by some till vendors of penalties from €2,500 to €25,000 for a missing notification are not in the law as we read it; €25,000 is the cap on a single coercive payment under section 329 AO.

The tax office can order a missing notification and enforce it with a coercive payment (section 328 AO). A missing notification can also raise doubts about proper till records in a till inspection or audit, with the risk of an estimated tax adjustment. This is our reading of the law, not legal advice. The simplest fix is to report now.

Questions

Has my till vendor already reported it?

Some vendors offer this, many don't. Ask for a transmission log; without one, assume nothing has been reported.

I only swapped the TSE. Do I report that?

The swap changes your system's reported data, so an updated notification for the location makes sense. Under the government bill for the Second Cash Register Act, reporting a TSE change becomes an explicit duty from 2028.

I have two branches. One notification or two?

Two: each business location gets its own notification with all its systems.

How long does it take?

For the form itself we plan about 30 minutes per location in the session. Most of the time goes into gathering the data, such as the TSE serial.

Do I report an open cash box?

No, only electronic recording systems are reported. Under the government bill, however, an open cash box would no longer be allowed from 2028 for businesses above the thresholds.

Sources

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