Do I need a cash register?

If your accountant, a client, or someone on Telegram has told you that you "need a cash register" — and you're not sure whether they're right — this is the canonical answer.

What the law actually says

The cash-register obligation lives in Article 380, paragraph 1 of the Tax Code of the Republic of Armenia. The trigger clause reads, verbatim:

Կազմակերպությունների, անհատ ձեռնարկատերերի և նոտարների կողմից կանխիկ դրամով կամ վճարային քարտերի կամ վճարային տեխնոլոգիաների հիման վրա կիրառվող այլ վճարային գործիքների միջոցով իրականացվող դրամական հաշվարկների դեպքում … հսկիչ դրամարկղային մեքենայի կիրառությունը պարտադիր է առևտրի օբյեկտների, շրջիկ առևտրի կետերի, առևտրի իրականացման վայրերում վաճառատեղերի միջոցով մանրածախ վաճառք իրականացնելիս, բնակչության համար աշխատանքներ կատարելիս կամ բնակչությանը ծառայություններ մատուցելիս:

In plain English:

When organisations, individual entrepreneurs, or notaries conduct monetary settlements in cash, by payment card, or through other payment instruments based on payment technologies … the use of a cash register is mandatory when carrying out retail sale through commercial facilities, mobile sale points, or sale outlets, or when performing works for the population, or rendering services to the population.

Two phrases in this clause carry all the weight, and both have to be true for the obligation to kick in.

"Կանխիկ դրամով կամ վճարային քարտերի կամ վճարային տեխնոլոգիաների հիման վրա կիրառվող այլ վճարային գործիքների միջոցով" — cash, payment card, or other payment instruments based on payment technologies. This is a closed list. Wire transfers between bank accounts (interbank transfers, SWIFT, employer payroll) are not on it. They're not cash, not a card, and not a payment-technology instrument — they are a banking operation.

"Բնակչության համար ... բնակչությանը" — for the population … to the population. In Armenian legal usage, բնակչություն (bnakchutyun, "the population") is the standard term for the general public — natural persons acting as consumers — and is read as excluding other organisations, IEs, notaries, or lawyers. Under this standard reading, B2B work falls outside the trigger.

The two questions

Article 380(1) breaks into two yes/no questions. Both have to be "yes" for a cash-register receipt to be required.

Common scenarios

• Solo IE, foreign corporate client, paid by SWIFT, software development

  No

  Wire transfer, B2B

• Solo IE, Armenian corporate client, bank transfer, consulting

  No

  Wire transfer, B2B

• Solo IE, Armenian individual paying via Idram for consulting

  Yes

  Idram = payment-technology instrument; client = individual

• Solo IE running a small shop, walk-in customers paying cash

  Yes

  Textbook Art. 380(1) trigger

• Solo IE selling on a marketplace to Armenian individuals, card-on-delivery

  Yes (electronic CR)

  Card payment + retail to population; Art. 380.1 e-CR is the appropriate device

• "Self-employed" individual ("ինքնազբաղված") working from home, in-person payments

  Depends — ask a lawyer

  The old self-employed exemption regime was repealed in 2019 (HO-68-N); current status is unclear

• Solo IE under turnover-tax regime, B2B clients only

  No

  Wire transfer + B2B; the tax regime itself doesn't matter

• Solo IE under micro-business regime, selling to walk-in customers

  Yes

  Regime doesn't exempt; the activity itself triggers Art. 380(1)

• Independent taxi driver with a taximeter

  No

  Specific exemption: Art. 380(3)(6)

• Taxi driver working through a ride-hailing platform (Yandex.Go, GG)

  Yes (electronic CR)

  Mandatory under Tax Code Art. 380.1(1.1)

Procedural caveats on scenarios 3 and 5

• Scenario 3 (Idram for consulting) assumes the payment flows through Idram as a payment-technology instrument, which the Law on Non-Cash Operations treats as triggering Art. 380(1). If your specific flow is a plain interbank wire that merely uses Idram as a routing label, the classification can change. When in doubt, ask your accountant about the exact instrument category.
• Scenario 5 (marketplace) is settled on the obligation itself — someone owes a fiscal receipt — but the procedural question of whose CR issues it (the marketplace operator's or yours as a seller) depends on the marketplace's specific arrangement with SRC. Confirm with the marketplace before you rely on this.

Common misconceptions

What "I just tell my accountant once a quarter" actually means

Many freelancers, contractors, and B2B service providers in Armenia work like this:

• A client pays them by bank transfer.
• They don't issue any kind of receipt.
• Their accountant reviews bank deposits and files taxes accordingly.
• Tax (turnover-tax, general, or profit) is paid through the standard filing flow.

This is fully legal when the work falls outside Article 380(1)'s trigger — which, as we've seen, is the case for most B2B service work paid by bank transfer.

The reason this is confusing: people conflate "I owe tax" with "I owe a fiscal receipt." They are different obligations:

• Tax obligation: always exists. You file declarations, your accountant calculates the amount, you pay.
• Fiscal-receipt obligation: triggered narrowly by Article 380(1). Many people legitimately have a tax obligation but no fiscal-receipt obligation.

Confusion likely stems from older accounting practice across the post-Soviet space, where "ККМ" became shorthand for "we're tracking your sales." In Armenia today, sales tracking happens through bank-transfer data being reportable to SRC under the Law on Non-Cash Operations (HO-12-N, 2022), independently of whether a fiscal receipt was issued.

When in doubt

If your scenario doesn't fit the table cleanly, do this:

• Re-read Article 380 and its exemptions list in paragraph 3.
• Check SRC's official clarifications portal — they publish written answers to citizen inquiries on specific edge cases.
• Send SRC a written inquiry yourself; the answer is free and becomes binding for your specific situation.
• Consult an accountant who specifically knows fiscalization rules, not just tax rules.

What this article does not cover

Even when you don't need a cash register, you may still owe:

• Income / turnover-tax / profit-tax declarations.
• Card-acceptance obligations under Article 9 of the Non-Cash Operations Law (but only if you DO have a CR obligation under the Tax Code).
• Invoicing requirements (separate from CR receipts).

Those are different rabbit holes; this article is strictly about the cash-register / fiscal-receipt obligation.

Sources

• Tax Code of the Republic of Armenia, current consolidated, ARLIS — Articles 379, 380, 380.1, 386 govern cash-register and cash-payment rules.
• Law on Non-Cash Operations (HO-12-N, 2022), ARLIS — Articles 4 and 9 govern non-cash payment requirements.
• State Revenue Committee — official clarifications portal
• SRC HDM page — open lists of approved cash-register models and the companies allowed to repair them, the technical guide for connecting to the electronic cash-register service, and the current lists of which goods (Government Decree N 1406-N) and which services (Decree N 875-N) require a cash register under Article 380. All files are in Armenian.

The canonical reading of every clause cited above is the Armenian text on ARLIS. fiscal.am-authored English and Russian translations of the most cited articles are available in our Law section — currently Article 379, 380, 380.1, 386, and Articles 4 and 9 of the Law on Non-Cash Operations, plus Government Decree N 1976-N (the master technical-requirements decree) and Government Decree N 1419-N (historical — created the now-dissolved certification body).