They were approved by an order of the State Tax Service dated August 19, 2026. The tax service provided clarification on whether a taxpayer is required to use a cash register and issue a receipt to a customer when accepting tips (service charges).
The answer to this question depends on the direction in which the money flows. If the business itself (a restaurant, café, etc.) accepts the tip, then it is required to issue a receipt. When money passes through the establishment’s cash register or payment system, this is considered a business transaction.
By law, in such a situation, a cash register must be used and the customer must be issued the appropriate document. Alternatively, the receipt may be sent online to a phone number or email address if the payer provided this information prior to payment, specifying “Bacșiș” in the “Name of each item (service)” field, — according to the State Tax Service’s guidelines.
If, however, the customer gives the tip directly to an employee (for example, by handing cash to a server or transferring money to the employee’s personal card, bypassing the establishment’s cash register), a receipt is not required. In this case, the transaction is not considered a business transaction for the enterprise—the money does not pass through its financial system, and the company is not required to use cash register equipment.
So the main criterion is the movement and direction of the money—more precisely, whether the amount remains in the company’s cash flow or goes into the employee’s pocket outside the company’s accounting system. This is because receiving a tip (as defined in the State Tax Service’s guidelines) is considered a business transaction.
The following definition is provided as evidence. According to the law, “a business transaction is an economic event consisting of the sale of goods, the performance of work, the provision of services, the receipt of payment for goods, work, and services, and the acceptance of tax and non-tax payments and other receipts”.
“The State Tax Service, taking into account the provisions of Government Resolution No. 141/2019 on the Use of Cash Registers in Cash Transactions, believes that tips must be processed through a cash register”, comments Sergey Temrin, director of the auditing firm Concept. “The rationale is that this constitutes a business transaction, and it must be recorded through a cash register”.
As Tatiana Grinic, director of GR&TI, notes, the State Tax Service clearly distinguishes between such transactions. “If tips are given not personally to the server but to the establishment along with the payment of the bill as a token of appreciation for the service provided, then these funds are processed through the cash register”, she says. “In this case, the receipt must separately list the amount of revenue and the amount of the tip. But this rarely happens here. If, however, a tip is given directly to the server for service, it is not considered a business transaction for the establishment, so it is not required to issue a receipt. However, the State Tax Service does not specify whether tips are subject to VAT or how a server’s income is tracked”.
