Mr. Ciabatti operates three ice cream parlours in the Munich area. The parlours sell coffee and ice cream sundaes on the premises, as well as take-away ice cream from a window sales counter. Mr. Ciabatti uses a cash register with daily cash receipt summaries (Z-Bon) for sales within the premises, and an open till for off-site sales, since he did not want to purchase a second expensive cash register for each business. To ensure that Mr. Ciabatti is prepared for a possible tax audit, we check each of his registers with regard to the requirements of the tax office as part of the monthly accounting activities:

• With regard to his open till, we clarify e.g. the following issues:
  • Are counting logs in place that correspond to the form required by the tax office?
  • Are they prepared in the same form every day?
  • We also advise Mr. Ciabatti that he is well within his rights to continue using an open till after 2016. No one can force him to buy an electronic cash register!
• With regard to his cash register, we review the daily cash receipt summaries for the required information, including:
  • Are the summary document numbers consecutive?
  • Do the daily cash receipt summaries include cancellations?
  • Do they contain date and time of access?
• In our regular client circulars, we also advise Mr. Ciabatti of the other requirements that apply with regard to his cash register, such as
  • obtaining confirmation from the supplier of the cash register that his model cannot be retrofitted pursuant to the applicable requirements, which means that he can take advantage of the transition rule until the end of 2016.
  • the storage of logs listing all modifications made to the cash register, the handbook, and the sales that were booked via the memory
  • …. and much more!
• Of course, we also verify that both on- and off-premise sales indicate the right VAT code.

But it is not just the cash register that must satisfy the requirements set by the tax office. Therefore our accounting team conducts monthly checks to verify that

• the average cost of sales
• the amount of cash receipts to cover living costs
• benefits in kind (e.g. staff meals)
• and business relations with family members satisfy the requirements.

Mr. Ciabatti quickly discovers that staff is another recurring issue in the hospitality sector 


• Naturally, we also look after the entire processing and implementation of financial and payroll accounting activities on his behalf
• We can also look after his staff registrations and clarify his obligations as an employer
• We explain what documents must be made available for a possible customs audit
• We explain what obligations he faces as an employer as a result of the new minimum wage legislation
• We also provide Mr. Ciabatti with a tool that allows him to calculate the actual cost of a certain net wage per hour (incl. all charges) – which allows him to negotiate with his employees in confidence.

Even though Mr. Ciabatti complies with all directives, he receives a letter from the tax office for the following: Selection for tax audit

• Since his cash register complies with the requirements, there is little to take issue with
• Despite that, the auditor tries to use all means at his disposal to arrive at a higher assessment.

To find out more about our services in this area, see the Focus on tax audits.