ÖKC Tebliği

Concerning Law No. 3100 on the Obligation of VAT Taxpayers to Use Electronic Cash Registers — this circular covers the required properties of papers to be used in payment-recording devices connected to fuel pumps to prevent faded and illegible receipts.

2 — Paper Rolls to Be Used in Electronic Cash Registers

As known, Section 5 of General Communiqué No. 52 on Electronic Cash Registers explained the specifications that thermal paper rolls used in thermal-printer electronic cash registers must have.

Section 5 of General Communiqué No. 68 stated that receipts issued via payment-recording devices connected to fuel pumps shall be deemed “documents substituting for invoices.”

Therefore, since such receipts are used as expense documents, must be kept for five years starting from the calendar year following the relevant year under the Tax Procedure Law, and must be presented when requested, the paper rolls used to issue these receipts must be resistant to easy erasure.

Accordingly, the paper rolls to be used in the above-mentioned thermal-printer payment-recording devices (as explained in Section 5 of Communiqué No. 52) must:

• Be approved by the Turkish Standards Institute (TSE),
• Have, along the back center at intervals not exceeding 50 mm and throughout the roll length, the producing company’s logo (short name or initials) and the paper’s number printed,
• Also have on the back, along the paper edge at intervals not exceeding 20 mm, the following in order:
  • The short name of the approving institution (max. 4 characters),
  • The approval date and number,
  • The expiry date (month/year) preceded by the mark “SKT,” not less than 7 years.

In addition, in line with obligations regarding the preservation and submission of documents, such thermal paper rolls must be stored in environments where the temperature does not exceed +35°C, humidity is below 80%, and in lightproof containers that do not damage the paper.

Furthermore, for other taxpayers obliged to use electronic cash registers with thermal printers, paper rolls possessing the specifications set forth in Section 5 of General Communiqué No. 52 and listed above must also be used.

3 — Penalty

Article Repeated 8/2 of Law No. 3100 states: “For taxpayers who do not comply with the procedures and principles determined and announced by the Ministry of Finance; for each finding separately, a penalty equal to five times the first-degree irregularity fines listed in the ‘Schedule of Irregularity Fines’ annexed to the Tax Procedure Law shall be applied.”

Accordingly, for those who use paper rolls that do not have the above-mentioned specifications, a fine equal to five times the first-degree irregularity fines listed in the “Schedule of Irregularity Fines” annexed to the Tax Procedure Law shall be imposed separately for each finding (not per document), taking into account taxpayer groups.