What the Dutch inspector actually checks
The practical test is simple. Can someone who was not on the shift reconstruct the day? The Dutch tax administration expects the cash book, purchases, sales, invoices and bank movements to agree, whether you wrote them by hand or stored them in software. If they do not, the inspector may estimate turnover and leave you to prove the estimate wrong. That reversal of the burden of proof is the expensive outcome. It has nothing to do with the brand on the screen.
Belgium is the comparison people import by accident. Operators who serve meals on the premises, and caterers providing catering services, must use a registered cash register once yearly turnover from those restaurant and catering services exceeds EUR 25,000, excluding VAT and excluding drinks. Takeaway meals do not count toward that threshold. The till is certified and tied to the finance ministry. Those Belgian registered-till rules stop at the border. A Dutch venue does not inherit them, and there is no Dutch statute that turns a till into a legal requirement from a particular year. Do not mix this up with the duty to issue an invoice. Another business often has to receive a proper invoice. A guest in the room usually gets a receipt, and that is sensible, but it is not a certified VAT ticket required by law. The slip supports the records. It does not make the machine compulsory. If you take cash, write every receipt down immediately, because no bank line will arrive later to close the gap.
How long POS records have to stay
Seven years is the ordinary period. Basic records, including the general ledger and the purchase and sales administration, stay for seven years in any case. Data about immovable property is kept for ten, and some cross-border VAT schemes run longer too. For the daily figures of a restaurant, seven years is the working rule. The tax administration’s retention pages start the clock when a record is no longer current. A day close usually stops being current when the shift ends, so it belongs to that year and you keep it for the full period.
If you do use a POS, the line-level sales generally belong in what you keep. They are how someone checks that the money matches what left the kitchen. That detail matters less only when other records already allow the same check within a reasonable time. A till that drops tickets, or lets a void disappear without a trace, fails that test even if the hardware was never legally required. Storage is part of the buying decision. The practical shape of a day close is in the piece on fiscal records from the POS. Shorter periods can sometimes be agreed in writing for data that is not a basic record. Do not assume the sales ledger qualifies. Keep more than the grand total. The day close, turnover by payment method, VAT by rate and, where you use a POS, the underlying sales belong in that year’s file. A desktop POS that holds this in the system saves you from deciphering a box of faded thermal paper. The export or the database is what an inspection actually opens. Agree with your accountant where that file lands, and once reopen an ordinary Friday from last season without calling the supplier.
When a cash book stops being a serious option
Lawful is not the same as calm. A neighbourhood bistro that takes cards at the bar, cash on the terrace and a phone order for a birthday cake cannot reconstruct that evening from memory and a notebook filled in after midnight. Lines go missing, wine and food end up on the same VAT rate, and nobody can say which table had the second round. Cash makes the hole wider, because no bank line arrives later to confirm the sale.
A POS records the sale while it is happening. The desktop POS at the counter keeps product, price, VAT and payment method together. The mobile POS carries that same sale onto the terrace, so a card payment does not fall into a second book. For a restaurant that is usually the shortest path to records you can still explain on a Saturday. Buying the till is not a legal obligation. It is how the obligation you do have, auditable records kept for seven years, survives the shift. This is an operator’s explanation, not advice on your return.
