# Beleg — the receipt duty under § 132a BAO Basis: § 132a BAO, consolidated version as at 2026-08-05 (RIS). This duty is independent of the invoice duty in § 11 UStG and of the Registrierkassenpflicht in § 131b BAO. It exists even where no Registrierkasse is required, where the business is a Kleinunternehmer, and where the amount is one euro. ## Who must issue, and when > "Unternehmer (§ 2 Abs. 1 UStG 1994) haben unbeschadet anderer gesetzlicher Vorschriften **dem die Barzahlung Leistenden einen Beleg über empfangene Barzahlungen** für Lieferungen und sonstige Leistungen (§ 1 Abs. 1 Z 1 UStG 1994) zu erteilen." — § 132a Abs 1 BAO - **Every Unternehmer** in the § 2 Abs 1 UStG sense. VAT status is irrelevant. - **Every cash payment received.** No de minimis threshold. - "unbeschadet anderer gesetzlicher Vorschriften" — the § 11 UStG invoice does not discharge this duty and this duty does not discharge that one, though one document can satisfy both if it carries both sets of content. **What counts as Barzahlung** (§ 132a Abs 1, third and fourth sentences): payment by Bankomat- or Kreditkarte or other comparable electronic payment forms; Barschecks; and vouchers, bons or gift tokens issued by the Unternehmer and accepted by them in lieu of money. **Electronic receipts are allowed**: "Als Beleg gilt auch ein entsprechender elektronischer Beleg, welcher unmittelbar nach erfolgter Zahlung für den Zugriff durch den die Barzahlung Leistenden verfügbar ist." Immediately available for access by the payer — a receipt e-mailed the next morning does not qualify. In an Organschaft the duty may be discharged by the Organgesellschaft; in a Unternehmereinheit by one of the associated partnerships (§ 132a Abs 2). ## Mandatory content — § 132a Abs 3 1. an **unambiguous designation** of the supplying Unternehmer (or of the person entitled under Abs 2 to issue instead) 2. a **sequential number with one or more number series, assigned once to identify the Geschäftsvorfall** 3. the **date of issue** of the receipt 4. the **quantity and commercially usual description** of the goods, or the type and extent of the services 5. the **amount of the cash payment** — it suffices that the amount is arithmetically derivable from the data on the receipt Note the differences from § 11 UStG: the Beleg needs **no recipient**, **no VAT split**, and **no tax rate**. But its sequential number identifies the *transaction*, not the *invoice*, and it is a separate series from the invoice numbers unless one document serves both purposes. § 132a Abs 4 allows items 1 and 4 to be expressed by symbols or key numbers where their unambiguous determination is assured from the receipt or from other records held by the supplier, and allows the item 4 data to sit in other records held by the supplier or by a business recipient, provided the receipt refers to them. ## The customer's own duty > "Der Leistungsempfänger oder der an dessen Stelle die Gegenleistung ganz oder teilweise erbringende Dritte hat den Beleg **entgegenzunehmen und bis außerhalb der Geschäftsräumlichkeiten mitzunehmen**." — § 132a Abs 5 BAO The customer must take the receipt and carry it out of the premises. A UI that offers "no receipt needed" as a default, or that discards the receipt on the customer's behalf, is building around a statutory duty of the customer. Offer the electronic receipt instead. ## Duplicate and retention — § 132a Abs 6 - a carbon copy, or in the same operation another duplicate, must be made and kept - storage on data carriers counts as a duplicate **if the transactions are captured at the latest simultaneously with the creation of the receipt** - the retention duty covers the duplicates and the Abs 4 records, **begins with the creation of the receipt, and runs seven years from the end of the calendar year in which the receipt was issued** - the duplicate is part of the belegs belonging to the books and records § 132a Abs 7 waives the number, the date and the duplicate for entitlement documents such as tickets and travel documents where complete capture is assured. ## Extra content once a Registrierkasse is in use § 132a Abs 8 BAO: where an electronic cash register or recording system under § 131b is used, the receipt must carry **further data** serving traceability of the individual transaction and identification of the issuing Unternehmer. Those data are set out in § 11 RKSV — Kassenidentifikationsnummer, date and time of issue, amount split by rate, and the content of the machine-readable code. See `registrierkasse.md`. ## Template — Beleg without Registrierkasse (German, as issued) ```text [[Firma / eindeutige Bezeichnung des Unternehmers]] [[Straße Nr.]], [[PLZ Ort]] BELEG Belegnummer: [[B-2026-004711]] Belegdatum: [[TT.MM.JJJJ]] [[Menge]] [[handelsübliche Bezeichnung der Ware / Art und Umfang der Leistung]] Barzahlungsbetrag: [[24,90 €]] ``` ## Template — Beleg with Registrierkasse under the RKSV ```text [[Firma / eindeutige Bezeichnung des Unternehmers]] [[Straße Nr.]], [[PLZ Ort]] Kassenidentifikationsnummer: [[KASSE-01]] Belegnummer: [[B-2026-004711]] Datum/Uhrzeit: [[TT.MM.JJJJ hh:mm:ss]] [[Menge]] [[handelsübliche Bezeichnung]] [[12,45 €]] [[Menge]] [[handelsübliche Bezeichnung]] [[12,45 €]] Satz Normal 20 % [[20,75 €]] Satz Ermäßigt-1 10 % [[4,15 €]] Satz Ermäßigt-2 13 % [[0,00 €]] Satz Null [[0,00 €]] Satz Besonders [[0,00 €]] Summe [[24,90 €]] [ QR-Code mit dem maschinenlesbaren Code nach § 10 Abs 2 RKSV ] ``` For a training or cancellation booking, add the express label: ```text TRAININGSBUCHUNG (bzw. STORNOBUCHUNG) ``` ## Checkpoints - [ ] A Beleg is issued on **every** cash payment, including card, contactless and voucher redemption - [ ] No amount threshold gates the receipt - [ ] Electronic receipts are available to the payer immediately after payment, not later - [ ] All five § 132a Abs 3 items present - [ ] Receipt numbers form a sequential series identifying the transaction, separate from invoice numbers where the documents differ - [ ] Duplicate created in the same operation and retained seven years from the end of the issue year - [ ] Where a Registrierkasse is in use, the § 11 RKSV additions are present including the machine-readable code - [ ] Training and cancellation receipts expressly labelled - [ ] The UI does not offer or default to "no receipt" — § 132a Abs 5 obliges the customer to take it - [ ] Exemption under §§ 1 to 6 BarUV, if relied on, documented with the provision and the figures