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Comment by walterbell | Hacker News Reader

Wake up call for "modern" retailers with touch screen cash registers that don't accept cash. They would either go out of business or have to invent a new ERP system on the fly.

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If there would be an emp blast anywhere in the world you would have far bigger problems. Btw a cash counter in my local mcdonalds was out of order meaning the lady had to write down every payment on a piece of paper. Because apparently it is not enough to just hand over the banknotes. You need to know that you sold cafe latte for 3euros and a mcmuffin for 1.5.

This is because of tax, accounting and inventory

It’s called a receipt, and they better be handing them out.

I’m sure their process needs a receipt. I usually don’t need documentation of such transactions. I often wish they had a way to decline the receipt so the paper isn’t wasted on something going straight into a waste bin.

Read in Mitch Hedberg's voice: “I bought a doughnut and they gave me a receipt for the doughtnut... I don't need a receipt for the doughnut. I give you money and you give me the doughnut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario that I would have to prove that I bought a doughnut. To some skeptical friend, 'Don't even act like I didn't get that doughnut, I've got the documentation right here... It's in my file at home. ...Under "D".'”

If you are a small business then you probably want the receipt for the doughnut so it can be written of as business expense. Or if you are a contractor with your own company, you'll want receipt for lunch for tax purposes.

I run a business. I am aware of the need for an audit trail. I do not need that as a consumer buying a bottle of water. I put that receipt straight into the waste bin.

Yeah but my point it as a contractor who goes to buy some food during lunch break I am a consumer but I need the receipt in order to claim the lunch as business expense.

What Mitch Hedberg needs is a gummint that will give him a tax break for making retailers issue receipts that are also delivered (by wire, natch) to the revenooers. Paper not needed, his tax break is also by wire.

Yes, that's a thing.

Mitch Hedberg is dead.

The receipt they give you is secondary - the main point is that there's also a permanent record created on the retailer's systems, sometimes involving a physical copy of all the receipts printed, sometimes a digital record that the retailer cannot alter, but in any case it does matter that you were given a receipt, since even if it goes straight into the waste bin, then it serves a purpose of ensuring that the transaction was properly registered.

You need a record of all transactions for tax purposes. If I give merchant a dollar, they give me a donut, and don't record the transaction, that's a crime - they're not paying sales tax/VAT on that, and also obtaining unrecorded tax that is used to pay "black salaries" in cash without paying the appropriate income & social security taxes.

I am aware of why I need an audit trail in my business. I rarely need the paper receipt handed to my by a cashier for a bottle of water. I put it straight into the waste bin.

If the cashier isn't routinely giving out the paper receipts, how do you ensure that the paper receipts exist in the first place? The assumption is that at least some of the businesses don't want that audit trail. Handing out receipts on request would/could mean that the receipts are only created if requested, and a majority of transactions can stay unregistered.

The ritual of giving a receipt to you (and you putting it straight into the waste bin) visibly demonstrates that the business routinely creates the receipts for all (most?) purchases, it ensures that in the vast majority of cases the receipt actually gets produced, and if a business is routinely not producing these receipts (or having fake info in these receipts) then this would be clearly visible to the general public. This ritual has a certain social value in enforcing tax compliance, so that's why it's required despite the paper cost.

In some shops in my area you can ask for a digital invoice via sms / email

Likewise in my area. But I don’t want a receipt at all for a bottle of water. I certainly don’t want to give the cashier my contact information. I want to spare them printing it out at all. Often they can’t because of their process. I’ve asked several cashiers about this.

Or use a pencil and a box

I remember credit card payments at retailers and gas stations used to be processed with carbon copies and a sliding box.

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