E-receipts – possibilities in 2024, mobile app

E-paragony is a free application developed by the Ministry of Finance that allows users to download and archive fiscal receipts in electronic form. The government’s IT system for handling digital invoices, commonly referred to as the Receipt HUB, is fully secured and anonymous (i.e., requiring no additional personal information for transactions), and fully accessible to users as of September 15th, 2023.

The details of how e-receipts can be used are also defined by the provisions of the SLIM VAT 3 change package.

E-receipts – definition

An e-paragon is a type of digital fiscal document that replaces the traditional paper receipt. It holds the same probative value as a paper receipt and is recognized by tax authorities. The document is generated by an online cash register system and then transmitted to the Central Repository of Cash Registers. Additionally, it’s an environmentally friendly solution, as it eliminates the use of paper and the harmful substances present in printing.

e-Paragony 2.0 – the capabilities of the government application

The e-Paragony 2.0 is a government application providing Receipt HUB system, that allows you to download, add, and archive digital receipts, eliminating the need for physical copies. These digital receipts can be used to prove purchases, report irregularities, and claim items or services. You can easily share them via SMS, email, or by using a direct link in the app.

Receipt HUB – when to use?

The logic behind the application is simple. The shopper, having the application installed on his phone, will receive a unique ID that will allow him to download e-receipts. The location of the user is done without providing personal information during the transaction. The user merely passes the generated bar code to the merchant to be read by the reader, thus establishing communication between the cash register and the app.

Taxpayers keeping records of sales with the use of cash registers are required to issue and issue a fiscal receipt to the purchaser “with the consent of the purchaser, in electronic form, sending this document in a manner agreed with him, including using the ICT system of the Head of the National Tax Administration mediating the issuance of fiscal receipts in electronic form to the purchaser, without having to provide his data.”

The customer under the service, after installing the application on the phone and connecting to the distribution system. No identifying information about the customer is required to receive the ID, even a phone number is unnecessary.

e-Receipts – a problem for cash registers and the market

Nearly 20,000 Poles have already downloaded the E-paragony 2.0 application within the first month of its launch. The first cash registers allowing the issuance of electronic receipts and transmitting them to the application via the Receipt HUB are also appearing, reports the Finance Ministry.

Despite the already legally introduced solutions for e-receipts and mobile applications, users in Poland can still encounter problems preventing them from using the technology. The problem still proves to be the lack of widespread fiscal cash registers (of the online or virtual type) adapted to create e-paragraphs.

An additional impediment to the spread of e-paragraphs turns out to be the multitude of applications supporting this format on the market. Centralization, the HUB format, promotes universality and ease of use since the user can archive all receipts in a single database. Meanwhile, the market is still competing with applications tied to brands and their loyalty programs, which force the use of multiple distribution systems instead of one centralized one, effectively discouraging users from using the technology. The situation will perhaps change with the introduction of the KSeF system and the linking of invoice distribution to fiscal receipts.