A new law has taken effect in Germany that requires receipts to be issued at businesses such as restaurants, bakeries, hairdressers, no matter how small the transaction.
It’s known as Kassengesetz, or “Cash Act”: a law for protection against the manipulation of digital records. The measure is meant to increase transparency and prevent tax fraud. The idea is to log each transaction in a format that can be reviewed and verified.
Many of these businesses — and their customers — have taken umbrage at the new requirement, but none has done so more deliciously than the country’s beloved bakeries.
In some towns in Bavaria, in southern Germany, some bakeries are incorporating the receipts into the goods themselves. The Bäckerei Ways in Moosinning has begun peddling Kassenbon Krapfen — receipt doughnuts. The pastries are slathered with pink icing and then topped with a receipt made of fondant, tax included.
Photo: Tobias Hase/picture alliance via Getty Images
