How to check whether a Serbian fiscal receipt is genuine

Every part of a fiscal receipt can be printed, including the parts that look like proof. The one thing that cannot be printed is a signature in the Tax Administration's database. Checking through the QR code does exactly that: it asks the database, not the paper.

How the check is done

There are two ways, and both lead to the same place:

1. Scan the QR code with a phone camera. It opens a page on the Tax Administration portal at suf.purs.gov.rs.
2. Open the link if you received the receipt electronically. When a receipt is delivered by email or on a screen, the same address is given as a hyperlink instead of a code.

No account, no app and no sign in are needed. The page opens publicly.

What you see when the check succeeds

The portal shows the data exactly as the fiscal receipt processor signed it:

• the taxpayer's business name, TIN and sales point,
• the receipt type and the transaction type,
• the items, the amounts and the tax recap,
• the PFR time and the PFR receipt number,
• the total and the payment method.

What is on the screen has to match what is on the paper. If they differ even in the amount or in the TIN, the paper is not trustworthy.

What it means when the check does not pass

The rulebook on checking reported fiscal receipts says a buyer can check a receipt immediately after it is issued, whether or not its data has already reached the Tax Administration (article 2). As we understand it, a receipt issued through an L-PFR while the line was down can therefore be checked too. The checking system gives one of three answers (article 4):

So a check that failed because the system was unavailable proves nothing and is worth repeating. An answer that the receipt is not valid is a different matter.

If you are the buyer

Best practice is to check while you are still on the premises, for expenses you will claim, for larger purchases and for anything going through a company. It takes as long as scanning the code.

If a receipt has no QR code, no PFR number and no counter, it is not a fiscal receipt. Nor is it a copy, pro forma or training receipt from a register, because those also pass through the PFR and carry a QR code, a PFR number and a counter, together with the words ОВО НИЈЕ ФИСКАЛНИ РАЧУН. Such a document may be something else, an invoice or a quote issued outside the register for instance, but it does not prove that a sale was recorded.

A suspicion that a sale was not recorded is reported to the Tax Administration. That is not the subject of this article; if the checking system only told you it was unavailable, check again before you conclude anything.

If you are the seller

The check is useful from your side too, especially in the first two weeks after a new register is set up. Three things are worth checking on the first real receipt:

1. Whether the taxpayer data matches what you registered for that sales point. If the portal shows a different sales point name than you expect, look at your settings.
2. Whether the tax recap matches. The labels and rates on a receipt come from the processor, not from the register; if they differ from what you expected, something is mapped wrongly.
3. Whether the check passes. If the portal says your first real receipt is not valid, something is wrong in the setup.

The test environment does not lead to the portal

The Tax Administration also runs a test environment, in which register manufacturers develop and check their products. Receipts issued there carry their own QR code, but they are not fiscal receipts and they do not appear in a production check.

The same goes for demo mode. What Otkucaj produces in demo mode is not a receipt, because there is no PFR behind it: Otkucaj prints it with ОВО НИЈЕ ФИСКАЛНИ РАЧУН at double height and a note that this is a simulator with no PFR, and such a document is never handed to a buyer.