Obligation to pay with the POS. Double penalty for those who refuse. And the crisis eats up businesses. Unfair measure for smaller companies
From today, Thursday 30 June, the fines for shops that do not accept the POS are applied, the obligation to pay by credit cards and debit cards. There is talk of sweeping checks on the territory and of double fines, from 30 euros per operation and a 4% surcharge on the cost of the non-accepted operation. Merchants, artisans, restaurant businesses and professionals who work on their own and have a direct relationship with the customer have to comply with the obligation to use the POS. The obligation is also valid for lawyers, notaries, accountants, doctors, for agritourisms, Bed and Breakfasts and hotels.
With skyrocketing prices due to speculation and inflation, there is more money that those who produce in Italy will have to pay to the banks, for those who have an activity and are in difficulty or who already pay because in Italy the POS is very widespread. The use obligation has been in force since 2014 even if only from today are fines for those who do not accept electronic payments. Many micro-businesses are at risk and with their closure thousands of other families would end up in the streets.
Enrico Postacchini, president of Confcommercio Ascom Bologna ad Affaritaliani.it: “Out of 10 million POS installed throughout Europe, we have installed 3.5 million in Italy … almost 4. It does not seem to me that ours is a ‘behind’ country in this sense. Maybe someone is missing data. I don’t know any merchants who don’t have it. By now, even those on the street have them. I see it as an operation between the demagogic and the superficial. Those who are already out of business per se do not have a POS ”.
POS: It’s the very small businesses that don’t have it and that move on a tightrope
Postacchini: “If it’s the hunt for ‘black’, I really see some ‘little things’. In principle, then there is a contradiction. Let’s not forget that the installation of the POS obliges the purchase and the rent of a machine from a private individual. Makes you have to go to a company that makes or hires them. And do I get sanctioned for not using their product? Am I obliged to install someone’s equipment and if I don’t use it will I be sanctioned? “
The costs of this service also already fall on the consumer with an increase in final prices. We should lower the commissions that are paid to banks but it does not happen or even reset them for minimum activities. “The introduction of sanctions for those who do not accept payments of any amount by card and ATM”, explains Confesercenti, “is an inappropriate provision and unfair for smaller businesses, for which the cost of electronic money, especially on low-value transactions, is already very high, approximately 772 million euros a year, including commissions and purchase-loan of the device“. According to the trade association in absolute terms, the cost for the single merchant reaches up to 1081 euros, depending on the type of device used and the related contract, as well as the volume of transactions.
Confcommercio Nazionale also increases the dose: “We cannot think of encouraging electronic payments through the sanctions mechanism, what is needed to achieve this goal is a reduction in commissions and costs borne by consumers and businesses, also by enhancing the tax credit tool on commissions paid by the merchant, and introduce free for so-called micropayments “.
But it doesn’t stop there. The first of July comes a second novelty: the obligation of electronic invoicing for taxpayers who fall under the advantage regimetaxpayers on a flat-rate basis and taxable persons (amateur sports associations and third sector entities) who have chosen the special regime for VAT purposes and who in the tax period of the year recorded income of up to 65,000 euros.
More bureaucracy, other rules, other taxes for a country that is increasingly in difficulty.
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