A fiscal receipt issued to a company: how the buyer TIN is entered, what it is for, and where the e-invoice comes in

"I need this on the company" is a sentence a cashier hears every day, and it is often understood as a request for some special form. It is not. The Law on Fiscalization knows one fiscal receipt, and the difference between a receipt for a citizen and a receipt for a company is one field, filled in before issuing. If it is filled in, the buyer's accountant has what they need. If it is not, the receipt cannot be fixed afterwards.

The buyer ID field: code, colon, number

A fiscal receipt has a buyer ID field. When the buyer is a legal entity or a sole trader, the law requires their TIN on the receipt (Article 5(2)(5) of the Law on Fiscalization), so the field is then mandatory; otherwise it is filled in when the buyer asks to be identified, and on every refund receipt. Its content is written as the identification type code, a colon and the number itself, following the code list in the Tax Administration's technical guide (section 9.8). The most common codes:

The full list of codes, including foreign identifiers (30 to 36 and 40), is in the code list of the Tax Administration's technical guide, section 9.8; these are the ones a counter actually meets. For a company the answer is almost always 10 and the TIN. A TIN has nine digits; a register that validates its check digit saves you a refund over a typo.

The optional buyer field: a purpose code, not free text

Besides the ID, the receipt has an optional buyer field. It is not free text: under the technical guide (section 9.8) it takes a purpose code from the code list, a colon and a document number, for example the number of a ППО-ПДВ confirmation (code 30) or of a corporate card (code 50). It is used only when there is a need for it, together with the buyer ID. A purchase order number or an internal cost code does not go there; if the buyer wants one on the receipt, as we understand it, it can be printed as extra text outside the fiscal frame, below the line КРАЈ ФИСКАЛНОГ РАЧУНА.

Why the accountant asks for the TIN on the receipt

1. Booking the expense. A receipt with the buyer's TIN shows that the buyer is the company, which makes booking the expense easier for the accountant. Whether, and under what conditions, the expense may enter the books is set by the accounting and tax rules, so that question is the accountant's.
2. Input VAT. The VAT regulations allow a fiscal receipt containing the buyer's TIN to serve as an invoice for deducting input tax, under the conditions those regulations set. What those conditions are and whether they apply to your case is a question for the accountant, not the cashier; what the cashier can do is enter the TIN correctly.
3. Verification. A receipt with the buyer's TIN is verifiable on suf.purs.gov.rs like any other, and the buyer ID is visible in the verification, which makes reconciliation easier for the accountant.

Does an e-invoice go with the fiscal receipt

The Law on Electronic Invoicing (Article 3(2)(1)) exempts from the obligation to issue an electronic invoice retail turnover and advances received for retail turnover in accordance with the law governing fiscalization, with two exceptions: sales to a corporate card holder, and sales to a public sector entity that asks for an e-invoice within seven days of the sale; in those cases the e-invoice is issued, but not before the fiscal receipt. On our reading, a sale to a company in a retail outlet, recorded with a fiscal receipt carrying its TIN, is retail turnover, so outside those two exceptions an e-invoice is not mandatory alongside it. A sale to a legal entity or sole trader outside a retail outlet is, under Article 3(3) of the Law on Fiscalization, not retail turnover at all, so as we understand it no fiscal receipt is issued for it, but an invoice, or an e-invoice. Mind the web shop: under Article 3(4) the seat of a seller who sells at retail over the internet also counts as a retail outlet, so as we understand it that exclusion does not automatically cover company orders from a web shop; check that with your accountant.

It is a different matter if you also issue an invoice for the same sale, at the buyer's request or out of habit. Then you have two documents for one sale and the question of how they reconcile in the VAT records and in the e-invoicing system. That is settled beforehand, with the accountant, not afterwards, with an inspector. We do not state the rule, because it depends on who the buyer is and how the turnover is kept; we only state that the problem exists and where it is solved.

What this looks like at the counter

• The buyer says "on the company", the cashier asks for the TIN (or, for public funds users, the TIN and ЈБКЈС).
• The cashier enters the buyer ID before issuing; the register writes 10: and the TIN, or offers the type from a list.
• If the buyer wants a purchase order number on the receipt, it does not go into the optional buyer field (that field takes only codes from the list); it can be printed as extra text below the line КРАЈ ФИСКАЛНОГ РАЧУНА.
• The receipt is issued and printed like any other; the line ИД купца appears on the paper.
• If the buyer wishes, the receipt is also e-mailed, which the law allows with their consent; the accountant receives a PDF with a verification link.

Short version

• A receipt "on the company" is the same fiscal receipt with the buyer ID filled in: 10: and the TIN.
• The ID is entered before issuing. Under the technical guide, a correction by cancellation and a new receipt is allowed only immediately after the sale; later, no new receipt with the buyer ID is issued.
• Retail turnover recorded with a fiscal receipt is exempt from the e-invoice obligation, except for sales to a corporate card holder and to a public sector entity that asks for one within seven days; an invoice alongside it is otherwise a separate question for the accountant.
• The conditions for VAT deduction on a fiscal receipt are set by the VAT regulations, not by the register.