Fiscalization for Germany

The commercetools InStore integration with Fiscal Solutions

German fiscalization utilizes a TSE (Technische Sicherheitseinrichtung) to sign every sale and produce a compliant receipt. The TSE is provided as a cloud service by Fiscal Solutions and Deutsche Fiskal, and the commercetools InStore integration handles only the technical signing and receipt rendering.

In Germany, only the TSE (Technische Sicherheitseinrichtung) is certified. commercetools InStore is not certified and does not have a live connection to the tax authority. Your obligations are therefore to run a certified TSE, register your workstations and TSE with the tax office, issue compliant receipts, retain data for ten years, and produce exports on demand. You own the fiscal account and legal compliance. The commercetools InStore integration provides the technical signing and receipt layer.

Prerequisites

You are responsible for obtaining or setting up the following prerequisites to use commercetools InStore in Germany:

• An active commercetools Project with InStore implemented.
• A Fiscal Solutions production subscription. Your account must be approved by Fiscal Solutions and activated, subscribed to the Germany product, with commercetools granted a Manager role to sign on your behalf. Consult with the Fiscal Solutions website for more information about their requirements, services, and pricing.
• A certified TSE or ERS for every cash drawer, provided as a cloud TSE through Fiscal Solutions and Deutsche Fiskal. You are responsible for procuring the TSE.
• A signing certificate (.pfx) whose embedded TaxpayerID matches your German VAT number.
• A registered electronic recording system (ERS) per workstation, plus the FS-portal fiscal identifiers (legal entity carrying the VAT number, business unit and store, fiscal workstation, device).

Setup and registration steps

1. Provision the Fiscal Solutions account, grant commercetools the Manager role, configure the fiscal hierarchy, and upload the certificate.
2. Register with Finanzamt registration (Meldepflicht), observing its deadlines.
3. Register every workstation and the TSE with the tax office. The registration channel varies by Federal State.
4. Configure German VAT correctly in the commercetools tax setup. The fiscal receipt's tax breakdown is derived from the cart's tax, so an incorrect rate produces an incorrect fiscal receipt.
5. Make any necessary adjustments to cash receipts. You may wish to include the optional DSFinV-K-formatted QR code that helps identify the transaction.
6. Complete go-to-production (production endpoints and device, firewalls opened) and run end-to-end test sales.

Ongoing legal obligations

It is your responsibility to comply with German fiscalization requirements. The commercetools InStore integration does not guarantee compliance, and you should consult with your tax advisor. Key obligations include:

• Every online transaction is TSE-signed at both start and finish, in unbroken sequence.
• Receipt issuance (Belegausgabepflicht) is mandatory for every sale. If the receipt is electronic, it must be issued only with customer consent.
• Required receipt elements include store name and address, date, transaction start and end times, items and quantities, per-rate tax totals, transaction number, workstation and TSE serial numbers, signature counter, and check (signature) value. The DSFinV-K QR code is strongly recommended.
• Ten-year data retention (GoBD), DSFinV-K export on demand with the archive stored only in Germany, and readiness for an unannounced Kassen-Nachschau audit.
• TSE and workstation changes, transfers, and decommissioning reported to the responsible tax authority within one month.

What the commercetools InStore integration provides

• Signs every online German sale through Fiscal Solutions and the Deutsche Fiskal TSE (two-step Start and Finish flow).
• Renders the mandated receipt elements: TSE signature, signature counter, TSE serial number, and DSFinV-K QR code.
• On TSE offline, completes the sale and prints the mandated offline marker, with an on-screen cashier notification.
• Maps amounts and VAT from the cart and does not round the receipt total or change its value.