Exemptions from the cash register requirement

You are able to apply for an exemption to the Swedish Tax Agency if it is deemed to be unreasonable to use the cash register or where reliable data for tax inspections can be satisfied in some other way.

Business activities that are exempted

If you sell goods or services in cash for less than four times the price base amount including Swedish VAT (moms) during one financial year of twelve months, then you do not need to have a certified cash register. In that case the cash sales are considered to be of insignificant scope.

4 × price base amount = SEK 229 200 for 2024.

Over and above sales of insignificant scope, certain other activities are also exempted from the cash register requirement.

• Activities that are exempted from tax liability in accordance with the Swedish Income Tax Act. This category covers the Swedish state, county councils and municipalities, bankruptcy estates and certain non-profit organizations. Foreign business owners with no fixed operating site in Sweden are also exempted from tax liability, but are not exempted from the obligation to use a certified cash register. If the company does not use a Swedish certified cash register, they can instead use a cash register that has been approved according to regulations in another country within the EEA, if the approval process shows that the cash register fulfills equivalent requirements as Swedish certified cash registers.
• Taxi operations.
• Distance sales and doorstep selling (e-commerce etc.).
• Unmanned points of sale, sales via vending machines or sales in automated business premises.
• Sales of lotteries and betting with a license under the Swedish Gambling Act that are sold through an agent.
• Sales of for example tickets that is sold by a public transportation company that runs traffic under the Swedish Public Transportation Act
• Bingo, gaming machines and certain lotteries arranged with permits under the Swedish Gambling Act.
  

Cash invoices and invoiced sales

If you happen to invoice for all or parts of your sales then you do not need to register the invoiced sales in a cash register. This is due to invoiced sales not being covered by the cash register requirement.

An alternative to registering the sales in a cash register is that you make out a cash invoice at the same time as you get paid. The invoice, in that case, shall comply with the requirements in Sweden’s Accounting Act concerning the correct appearance of the supporting document. This implies, amongst other things, that the following must be evident:

• when the supporting document has been issued
• when the business transaction has occurred
• what the business transaction relates to
• the amount
• who the counterparty is
• supporting document (invoice) number.
  

The Swedish Tax Agency considers it necessary for there to be a serial number on the cash invoice.

You must save a copy of each invoice during your bookkeeping. You must ensure that you record the cash payment the following working day at the latest.

Application for exemption

The Swedish Tax Agency may permit, either wholly or partly, an individual exemption when a certain obligation relating to cash registers is deemed to be unreasonable. It is not sufficient that the sales take place outdoors and under difficult weather conditions for such exemptions to be able to be permitted. Nor is the lack of electricity at the sales venue sufficient for you to be exempted.

• If you consider that you have sufficient reasons for an exemption you can apply to be exempted at the Swedish Tax Agency. Please use the form SKV 1510 (in Swedish).
  

You may also be exempt from the requirement if the need for reliable background material for a tax inspection may be met in some other way than by a cash register which thereby satisfies the requirements.

If you are granted an exemption from some obligation that applies to the cash register you will receive a decision from the Swedish Tax Agency. The decision specifies how long the exemption applies and those conditions that are otherwise applicable.