I nove miliardi del Pos. Come la retromarcia del governo nel 2022 ha salvato i conti pubblici

Since January 2026, the requirement for a digital and functional link between cash registers and POS terminals has been fully in force. The measure, designed to combat tax evasion by automating the recording and transmission of payment details for every electronic transaction, has generated an estimated €9 billion in additional revenue for the state coffers. This is a significant achievement for public finances, coming at a time of strong stability but also of tight budgetary constraints, and represents the culmination of a regulatory process that has been anything but straightforward.

To understand the background to this, we need to go back to the end of 2022. In December, just a few weeks after taking office, the government led by Giorgia Meloni had included a symbolic provision in the draft Budget Bill: the removal of penalties for merchants who refused electronic payments by card or debit card for amounts under 60 euros (down from the initial 30 euros). The majority’s stated aim was to protect small retailers and micro-business owners from the impact of bank fees on low-value transactions.

The proposal, however, immediately ran into objections from the European Commission. Brussels had pointed out that the removal of penalties on POS terminals was in direct contradiction to the commitments made by Italy in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). In particular, the target agreed the previous June with the Draghi government regarded the effectiveness of penalties on digital payments as an indispensable tool for reducing the gap in VAT and income tax evasion. The risk of jeopardising the Commission’s positive assessment and the consequent release of NRRP funds prompted the government to backtrack. Prime Minister Meloni herself had acknowledged the need for a review: “The POS requirement is a PNRR objective and we are therefore discussing it with the Commission. If there is no leeway, we will find another way to ensure that merchants do not have to pay bank fees on small payments.” The central issue, therefore, remained the protection of merchants; an anti-evasion measure was not yet on the cards.

The U-turn was formalised by a government amendment tabled before the Chamber of Deputies’ Budget Committee, which removed the €60 threshold and reinstated the original penalty regime (amounting to €30 plus 4 per cent of the transaction value). Alternatively, the amendment introduced a commitment for the Ministry of Economy and Finance to establish, within two months of the budget’s approval, a permanent round table involving banks and trade associations, aimed at identifying solutions and agreements to mitigate the impact of collection costs for transactions up to 30 euros, targeting businesses with turnover not exceeding 400,000 euros. Overcoming that impasse and maintaining the requirements agreed with the European Union have made it possible not only to secure the funds for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), but also to continue the process of digitising tax audits.

How did we then move from the U-turn to the approval of an anti-tax-evasion law? In reality, the transition was swift and less ‘bureaucratic’ than one might think. With the penalties still in force, the uptake and use of POS terminals are constantly increasing, whilst the Revenue Agency and the Ministry of the Economy are stepping up cross-checks between electronic payment data transmitted by financial operators and the amounts declared by merchants. Discrepancies are emerging with increasing frequency: in several cases, electronic transactions detected by banking systems were not matched by a corresponding electronic receipt issued by the electronic cash register. This led to the amendment included in the Budget Law at the end of 2025, following an October directive from the Revenue Agency setting out the terms and conditions for the electronic link.

The requirement for technical integration between POS terminals and electronic cash registers, which came into force at the start of 2026, has helped to reduce the discrepancy between actual transactions and those declared, ensuring that takings are automatically matched with the data transmitted to the Revenue Agency. In essence, what in 2022 appeared to be a critical political move and a backtracking on election promises has, three years on, proved to be the technical foundation for securing an additional €9 billion in tax revenue for the state.