Restaurant POS Systems in Germany: TSE, ELSTER, 7% VAT and QR Ordering

A restaurant POS system in Germany must be secured by a certified TSE (technische Sicherheitseinrichtung, a technical security device), reported to your tax office through ELSTER within one month of acquiring it, and used to issue a receipt for every sale. Food is taxed at 7% and drinks at 19%, so the till needs both rates. An open cash box is still allowed in October 2026, but a cabinet draft would make an electronic till compulsory above set limits from 2028.

This guide is for English-speaking owners and managers in Germany. It also shows how to fit QR ordering around a TSE-secured till.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm your setup with your Steuerberater (tax adviser) before you change how you record sales.

MenuBeacon makes QR menu, ordering and kitchen software. We don't sell POS systems, TSEs or card processing. How we checked: on October 13, 2026 we re-read the laws, the tax administration's guidance on § 146a AO (the AEAO) and every source linked below; vendor prices come from each vendor's own page.

German till rules at a glance

Checked on October 13, 2026.

Do you have to use a cash register in Germany?

Not yet. The TSE rules apply to anyone who records sales with an electronic system (§ 146a(1) AO). A duty to use one above set limits is only a draft, so an open cash box (offene Ladenkasse, a cash drawer with no electronic till) is still allowed (ETL, October 7, 2026).

On September 23, 2026, the federal cabinet adopted a draft second cash register act, the Zweites Kassengesetz (PwC Tax & Legal Blog, September 25, 2026). As ETL summarized it:

• From January 1, 2028, businesses with total turnover above €100,000 in a calendar year would have to use an electronic till, unless their cash sales are below €12,000.
• 2026 figures would decide the 2028 obligation. A business that first crosses both limits in 2027 or later would be covered from July 1 of the following year.
• From 2028, an electronic receipt in a standard data format, such as a QR code or a download link, would become the default. Guests could still ask for paper.
• Changing your TSE would also have to be reported to the tax office.

The draft must still pass parliament and can change. If you're opening a restaurant in Germany and expect to cross both limits, budget for a TSE-secured till from the start.

KassenSichV in English: what the TSE does

Under § 146a AO, anyone who records transactions electronically must record each one individually, completely, correctly, on time and in order, and protect the system with a certified TSE. The Cash Register Security Regulation (KassenSichV § 1) applies this to electronic or computer-based cash systems and registers.

The TSE signs each record so that later changes show, and its data goes on every receipt. The BSI's list of certified TSEs (undated) includes USB and microSD modules that plug into the till, and cloud TSEs.

For restaurants, the key points are in the AEAO (Deubner text, status September 1, 2026):

• Unfinished transactions such as orders, cancellations of earlier entries and training bookings are "other processes" the till records too (No. 1.11.1). So if a guest cancels a QR order you've booked, cancel it in the till.
• Long-running restaurant orders are recorded as separate processes of the type Bestellung (order) (No. 2.2.3.6.2), starting as soon as the process begins (No. 2.2.2).
• In principle, every cash system in use (an electronic recording system under § 146a AO and § 1 KassenSichV) needs a TSE. If order systems without a billing function, or app systems, are linked to such a system, the tax office won't object if they share its TSE (No. 1.6).

The AEAO doesn't say how orders from a separate ordering app should reach the till, so agree on that with your Steuerberater.

If the TSE stops working

If only the TSE fails, the tax office won't object if you keep using the till until the TSE is fixed. Record when and why the TSE was down, make sure receipts show the outage, and fix the fault without delay (AEAO No. 1.14).

How to report your till to the tax office via ELSTER

Report each till to your tax office within one month of acquiring or retiring it (§ 146a(4) AO). Only Mein ELSTER, or software that uses the ERiC interface, counts; a notice by email or on paper has no effect (Oberfinanzdirektion NRW, undated). Rented and leased tills are reported too (ZDH, July 26, 2024; AEAO No. 1.16.2.6).

To send the notice yourself in Mein ELSTER:

1. Open Formulare und Leistungen, then Alle Formulare, and choose Mitteilung über elektronische Aufzeichnungssysteme (§ 146a Absatz 4 AO) (ELSTER, undated).
2. Have ready your name and tax number, the TSE's BSI certification ID (it looks like BSI-K-TR-nnnn-yyyy) and serial number, the type and number of tills with each one's serial number, and the date you acquired each till (for a leased till, the date the lease began) or retired it (AEAO Nos. 1.16.2.1–1.16.2.7).
3. List every till at that location, not only the new one. Each location (Betriebsstätte) needs its own notice, and every later acquisition or retirement means sending the full list again (ELSTER; AEAO No. 1.16.1.4).

The electronic procedure opened on January 1, 2025. Tills acquired before July 1, 2025 had to be reported by July 31, 2025 (OFD NRW), so if you missed that, talk to your Steuerberater now. You can report a till as retired only after its acquisition has been reported.

Receipt rules: paper, digital and e-invoice

For every sale, you must issue a receipt and make it available to the guest promptly (§ 146a(2) AO). The guest doesn't have to take it, and you don't have to keep paper receipts left behind (AEAO No. 2.5.8).

The receipt shows your name and address, the date, the start and end times, the items, the price with the tax amount and rate, the transaction number, the till's and the TSE's serial numbers, the signature counter and a check value. It can be electronic, in a standard data format, if the guest agrees (§ 6 KassenSichV).

Since February 1, 2026, the receipt data can sit inside an e-invoice, which then serves as the receipt (KPMG, January 28, 2026, on BGBl. 2026 I No. 10).

Business-meal receipts (Bewirtungsbelege)

If you use an electronic till, the tax office accepts a business guest's meal receipt only if it was machine-generated, electronically recorded and secured by a certified TSE, with the TSE data shown, for example as a QR code (ETL, June 16, 2026, updated July 9, 2026).

With a handwritten receipt, or a slip without TSE data, the guest's business can lose the expense deduction, and in ETL's view the input VAT as well. So a receipt from a separate ordering app, without TSE data, can't replace the till's.

The Finance Ministry's updated letter of November 19, 2025 names two cases where a till receipt isn't strictly required (ZDH, December 4, 2025):

• the meal is billed after the day it was served and paid without cash, for example a closed event for a large group;
• the restaurant accepts only cashless payments.

Proof of the cashless payment then goes with the invoice, unless the invoice already shows how it was paid.

VAT on restaurant food and drinks: 7% and 19%

Since January 1, 2026, food is taxed at 7% whether guests eat in, take out or order delivery, and drinks stay at 19% (IHK Darmstadt, undated). The law sets 7% for restaurant and catering services, except the supply of drinks, with no end date (§ 12(2) No. 15 UStG).

Worked example (illustrative prices, VAT included):

A till that holds one VAT rate and includes VAT in its prices would show €1.52 (everything at 7%) or €3.70 (everything at 19%) instead of €2.01. MenuBeacon applies one tax rate per restaurant, so it can't charge two rates on one bill; that is one reason to print the bill from your till.

Packages need a split too. Under a Finance Ministry letter of December 22, 2025, the tax office won't object if 30% of the price of a buffet or all-inclusive offer that includes food and drinks is treated as drinks (IHK Darmstadt). Hotels have their own rule for business packages: 15% of the price at 19%.

Illustrative example: on a €40 buffet with drinks, €12 (30%) is taxed at 19% and €28 at 7%, so the price includes €1.92 + €1.83 = €3.75 of VAT (€12 × 19/119 and €28 × 7/107).

E-invoices for business customers

Since January 1, 2025, every business must be able to receive e-invoices from other businesses. Paper and PDF invoices to business customers stay allowed until December 31, 2026, or until the end of 2027 if your 2026 turnover is up to €800,000. From January 1, 2028, every business must issue e-invoices (DIHK, updated March 13, 2026).

Invoices of up to €250 are exempt (DIHK, updated March 13, 2026), so the rule matters when you invoice companies for events, catering or a larger business dinner.

Kassen-Nachschau: inspections, fines and record keeping

Tax officials can arrive unannounced during normal business hours to inspect your till. If they find problems, they can move straight to a full tax audit after telling you in writing (§ 146b AO).

At an inspection or audit, you hand over the till data in the standard DSFinV-K format, version 2.3 for records made since July 1, 2022 (Federal Central Tax Office, undated).

You must keep books and records for ten years and booking vouchers (Buchungsbelege) for eight, with electronic data available and machine-readable for the whole period, including the data of a till you have replaced (§ 147 AO).

Failing to use your electronic till properly, or to protect it with a TSE, can be fined up to €25,000. The fine applies when this is done intentionally or recklessly and makes it possible to underpay tax (§ 379(1) Nos. 4–5 and (6) AO), unless § 378 AO applies instead (reckless tax understatement, fines up to €50,000).

If your records can't be relied on, the tax office estimates your takings (§ 162 AO). The 2028 draft would also make a missing receipt an administrative offense (PwC, September 25, 2026).

What a POS system in Germany costs

One vendor's published prices show how the cost lines add up. They are an example, not a recommendation.

Hardware (tablet or terminal, receipt printer, cash drawer, handhelds) and card fees come on top. Illustrative arithmetic on list prices checked October 13, 2026, not customer data, for one till with table service over three years:

• (€430.80 + €286.80 + €190.80) × 3 = €2,725.20
• Plus the €99 activation fee = €2,824.20, excluding VAT, before hardware, card fees, training and setup help

The Finance Ministry's first draft of the 2028 rules (August 7, 2026) put the cost of a fixed till at €575. Six business associations, including the DIHK, answered that tills cost about €3,500 on average in practice (DIHK, August 13, 2026, updated August 17, 2026).

Card payments in German restaurants

In the Bundesbank's study of 2025, 55% of recorded purchases were paid cashless, and cash was used for 45% of payments. Cash was still the most-used single payment method, and the girocard was by far the most-used debit card (Bundesbank, June 17, 2026).

On September 11, 2026, the Finance Minister presented key points for a duty to offer at least one digital payment method alongside cash, including at least one European scheme, from 2027 (Tageskarte, September 11, 2026). The plan is not a bill yet.

For scale, Stripe's in-person terminal charges 1.4% + €0.10 on EEA cards (Stripe Germany pricing, undated). Illustrative arithmetic on that list price, checked October 13, 2026, not customer data: on the €23.20 bill above, 1.4% × €23.20 + €0.10 = €0.42.

QR ordering alongside a TSE-secured till

The tax administration won't object if order systems and app systems linked to a till share its TSE (AEAO No. 1.6), so QR ordering can work alongside a TSE-secured till. Because orders are records in their own right, the question is how each QR order reaches the till when it arrives, not only at payment. Three setups are common:

With orderbird's QR ordering (help page updated May 7, 2026), for example, a test order arrives in the till and prints its production ticket, and your staff accept QR orders in its order-management app. A separate tool's own payment features need your Steuerberater's view too (see below).

Which one fits:

• Your POS sells a QR module you like: use it; orders reach the till without re-keying.
• Your POS has none, or you want your own menu without paying for a module: a separate tool fits if someone books each order into the till as it arrives.
• Your POS accepts outside orders and you have a developer: a bridge removes the re-keying, at the cost of building and maintaining it.

A beer-garden evening, step by step

This uses the second setup. Illustrative prices: a Maß at €11.50 and a Brezn at €4.50.

1. A guest at table 41 scans the table's code and orders two Maß and a Brezn.
2. The order appears on the kitchen dashboard, open on a tablet at the bar.
3. Staff book it into the till, which records it as an order in the TSE and prints the bar ticket.
4. Staff pour and serve. Later rounds follow the same steps (for how they stay on one table, see QR ordering for bars and pubs).
5. The guest taps for the bill. The till prints it: €23.00 of beer with €3.67 VAT at 19%, and €4.50 of food with €0.29 VAT at 7%, €27.50 in total.
6. The guest pays at the till, and the receipt carries the TSE data.

What QR ordering removes here is the trip to table 41 to take the order, and the order-taking conversation. The till entry stays. Make one person per shift responsible for booking every dashboard order into the till as it arrives.

Price lists, allergens and additives on a QR menu

A QR code doesn't change the menu rules:

• Prices: a price list must be laid on the tables, handed to each guest before ordering, or posted where guests can read it easily, and a list of the main dishes and drinks must hang next to the entrance (§ 13 PAngV). The rule doesn't mention QR codes, so keep printed menus on hand.
• Allergens: electronic information is allowed if guests can reach it directly and easily before they order and before the food is served, and a notice at the food or on the premises says where to find it (§ 4(3) LMIDV). Keep a printed copy for guests who don't scan.
• Additives: colorings, preservatives, flavor enhancers and other listed additives must be declared with set wording, such as mit Farbstoff or mit Geschmacksverstärker, in the same way and medium as your allergen information (§ 5 LMZDV). So if guests find allergen information on your QR menu, the additive markers belong there too, unless you instead list every additive by class name and specific name or E number, and point guests to that list (§ 5(3) No. 2).

Before the first service

1. Agree on the order-booking workflow with your Steuerberater, including which of the QR tool's payment features stay unused.
2. Give each QR menu item its till button's name and price, and check its VAT rate (7% or 19%) in the till.
3. Match each table code to the till's table plan.
4. Place a test order from every table and follow it to the dashboard, till, bill and receipt. Then cancel one in the till and check that the cancellation is recorded.

Using MenuBeacon next to your Kassensystem

MenuBeacon is not a cash register and has no TSE. In Germany, use it alongside your TSE-secured Kassensystem. It is a browser-based QR menu, table ordering and kitchen dashboard. In its EU edition you choose Germany at sign-up, which sets menu prices in euros; check that page for sign-up availability in Germany first.

On every plan, including Free, use it for the guest menu (photos, allergens, the translations you enter, and additive notes in the item description), table orders to the live kitchen dashboard, waiter calls and bill requests. Book every order, sale, payment and receipt in your Kassensystem.

Where it stops in Germany:

• VAT: one rate per restaurant, so it can't split 7% food and 19% drinks on one bill.
• POS: it is not a full POS replacement, has no full two-way POS sync and lists no German POS connection, so staff key each order into the till. On Pro, signed webhooks can send order events to a system your developer connects.
• Payment features: on Free, staff mark cash orders paid. On Pro, the EU edition adds card payments at the table through the restaurant's own Stripe account, receipt printing and gift cards.
• Why to check them first: under the AEAO, a system has a cash function if it can handle at least partly cash payments, e-money used on site (such as the Geldkarte or virtual customer accounts), or vouchers, stored-value cards and similar tokens accepted in place of money (No. 1.2), and in principle every such system in use needs a TSE (No. 1.6). MenuBeacon has none.
• Who decides: whether MenuBeacon's payment features matter for your setup is for your Steuerberater to judge. Show them this list before you open, and don't use these features as your record of sale without their agreement.
• Split bills: Pro's pay at table splits equally into up to 10 parts, not by item. Split by item in the till.
• Limits: Free covers 3 menus, 20 table QR codes and 5,000 scans a month (about 167 a day over 30 days; illustrative), with no staff accounts, so a garden with more than 20 tables needs Pro.
• Upgrading: Pro is $20 a month, month to month, billed in US dollars while your menu prices stay in euros: 200 table codes, 50,000 scans a month and staff PIN accounts (up to 20). Tickets print on every plan, on a printer you provide. Over a limit, MenuBeacon asks you to upgrade rather than interrupting live menus without warning.
• Connection: live updates have a polling fallback, and there is limited offline continuity for signed-in staff cash workflows (not delivery or new sign-ins), so a reliable connection is recommended. Test the signal at your furthest table.

Questions to ask a POS vendor in Germany

1. Is a certified TSE included, hardware or cloud? What happens when the connection drops? When does its certificate run out, and what does renewal cost?
2. Do you help with reporting through Mein ELSTER or ERiC?
3. Can I set VAT per item, and split package prices 30/70?
4. Can you export DSFinV-K data for an inspection, and DATEV data for my Steuerberater?
5. Do your receipts show the TSE data business guests need?
6. Can you issue e-invoices to business customers?
7. How do QR orders reach your TSE: your own module, an interface or staff entry?
8. Can guests split a bill by item (getrennt zahlen)?
9. What do card terminals cost, and what are the rates for girocard and credit cards?
10. What is my three-year total per till, with table service, TSE renewals and setup?
11. What is the minimum term and notice period, and how do I take my till data with me if I leave?

Sources, checked on October 13, 2026

• Law: § 146a, § 146b, § 147, § 162, § 378 and § 379 AO; § 1 and § 6 KassenSichV; § 12 UStG; § 13 PAngV; § 4 LMIDV; § 5 LMZDV (current consolidated texts on gesetze-im-internet.de).
• Tax administration: AEAO on § 146a (Deubner text, status September 1, 2026; Nos. 1.2, 1.6, 1.11.1, 1.14, 1.16.1.4, 1.16.2.1–1.16.2.7, 2.2.2, 2.2.3.6.2 and 2.5.8); ELSTER notice form (undated); OFD NRW (undated); BZSt, DSFinV-K (undated); BSI certified TSEs (undated).
• Chambers and trade bodies: ZDH on ELSTER reporting (July 26, 2024); ZDH on business meals (December 4, 2025); IHK Darmstadt (undated); DIHK on e-invoices (updated March 13, 2026); DIHK on till costs (August 13, 2026, updated August 17, 2026).
• Advisers and press: PwC (September 25, 2026); ETL on the 2028 draft (October 7, 2026); ETL on business-meal receipts (June 16, 2026, updated July 9, 2026); KPMG (January 28, 2026); Tageskarte (September 11, 2026).
• Statistics: Deutsche Bundesbank (June 17, 2026).
• Vendors: ready2order prices (undated); Stripe Germany pricing (undated); orderbird help center (updated May 7, 2026).

Menus and table ordering alongside your Kassensystem: open the live demo, a fully set-up demo restaurant with no account needed, shared with other visitors and reset every few hours. Or start free (choose Germany at sign-up), or get setup help (choose the subject Setup help; the team aims to reply within one business day).