One of the most common questions when determining which sales are included in the fiscalization obligation is related to distance sales. If such transactions must be fiscalized, there is no confusion there. But when sales through distance contracts are out of scope of fiscalization, it is important to precisely define what is a distance sale and what is not.
Swedish Tax Agency provided a clear explanation regarding one of the possible confusing cases, which you can see below.
Sales of restaurant and catering services that take place via an app in the customer’s smart phone by a customer sitting in the restaurant cannot be considered sales through distance contracts. All such sales must therefore be registered in the restaurant’s cash register and the customer must be offered a receipt from the cash register.
Background:
The obligation to use cash registers does not apply to those who sell goods or services through distance contracts or home sales contracts. Distance agreement means agreement that is entered into within the framework of a system organized by the trader for reaching agreements at a distance, if the communication takes place exclusively at a distance.
The European Parliament’s distance contract directive states that all the conditions below must be met for a distance contract to be considered to exist:
- an agreement for the purchase of a product or a service must have been entered into
- the agreement must be entered into within the framework of a system organized by the trader to conclude agreements at a distance.
- the parties must not be physically present at the same time when the agreement is concluded, and
- the communication shall, up to and including the time when the agreement is entered into, have taken place exclusively by one or more means of distance communication.
When assessing whether a distance contract can be entered into in a restaurant operation, the nature of the services in such an operation must be taken into account.
What characterizes a restaurant operation is that it consists of a varying number of different services, several of which take place before a possible agreement is entered into, such as the provision of premises, furniture and crockery, table placement, table setting, removal, order management, etc., which have the purpose of enhancing the customer experience as well as enabling immediate consumption on the spot of ordered food and drink.
In a restaurant operation, the delivery of the food is only a part and where other services form the predominant part.
Taking into account what a restaurant and catering service includes for various elements and actions, it is the Tax Agency’s opinion that such services cannot constitute sales through distance contracts.
Get in touch with JB Fiscal Consulting to get and/or to remain compliant with fiscalization requirements in Sweden!