Anatomy of a fiscal receipt

A fiscal receipt is not just a piece of paper that says "you paid us". It is a registered, signed, government-tracked record of a sale. Most of the fields on it serve a specific purpose — for the seller, the buyer, the tax authority, or all three. This page walks through what's there and why.

What every fiscal receipt carries

Armenian fiscal receipts vary in layout by vendor and device, but the content is set by two instruments: the mandatory fields are listed in Article 381, paragraph 3 of the Tax Code, and the technical receipt format (including the QR code) is defined by Government Decision 1976-Ն of 3 December 2020.

Fields the Tax Code itself requires include:

• Seller identification — registered business name and TIN (ՀՎՀՀ).
• Address of the point of sale, as registered with SRC.
• Cash register identifier — the SRC-issued device or virtual-CR ID.
• Date and time of the transaction.
• Line items — for each: name, quantity, unit price, line total, and, where applicable, VAT rate and amount. For marked goods, the marking code appears as an item attribute.
• Total amount in Armenian dram.
• VAT breakdown if the seller is VAT-registered.
• Payment form — cash, card, or other payment instrument.
• Cashier / responsible person identifier.
• Fiscal-mode mark — the symbol "Ֆ". Its presence means the receipt cleared the fiscal step.
• Prepayment marker, where applicable.
• 8-digit fiscal number returned by SRC after registration.

The Government Decision adds the QR code that encodes a URL for verifying the receipt against the SRC ledger, and sets the overall visual format.

A non-fiscal "preliminary" receipt — issued before the fiscal step completes, or issued by a register operating outside the fiscal regime — will lack the "Ֆ" mark and the fiscal number. That is what marks a receipt as fiscal.

The fiscal number and the QR code

The fiscal number is the receipt's globally unique identity in SRC's ledger. It's assigned at the moment the cash register registers the sale with SRC — not before. A receipt without a fiscal number is, legally, not a fiscal receipt.

The QR code encodes a verification URL on the SRC infrastructure. Anyone — buyer, accountant, auditor — can scan the code with a phone camera and land on a page that shows whether the receipt is recorded in SRC's ledger and what its registered amount is. This is the consumer-side proof-of-purchase that's hard to fake: forging the QR is easy, but forging an SRC ledger entry is not.

If you ever need to verify a receipt, the QR code is the fastest path. Discrepancies between the printed receipt and the SRC ledger are how under-reporting gets caught.

How a receipt becomes "fiscal"

The transition from "you handed over money" to "this receipt is registered" happens in a tight sequence:

1. Customer pays. Cash, card, or payment-technology instrument — at the moment of payment, the cash register has all the data it needs to compose a receipt.
2. Cash register signs the data. The register cryptographically signs the receipt content using its digital certificate — typically issued via Armenia's national CA, EKENG — so SRC can verify the source.
3. Cash register sends to SRC. Over the network, the signed receipt data is transmitted to SRC's fiscal infrastructure.
4. SRC returns a fiscal number. SRC verifies the signature, records the receipt in its ledger, and returns the unique fiscal number.
5. Receipt is issued. The cash register prints (or sends electronically) a receipt that includes everything above plus the fiscal number and the QR code linking to the verification URL.

The whole sequence completes in a fraction of a second on a working network. If the network is down, certified registers have offline buffers that store the data and forward it once connectivity returns; the receipt is still considered fiscal because the chain of trust is preserved by the offline-buffer + signature mechanism.

Fiscal receipt vs other commercial documents

A fiscal receipt is not the same as:

• Invoice (հաշիվ-ապրանքագիր, hashiv-aprankagir) — a separate document used in B2B contexts; governed by different rules. Some businesses owe both an invoice and (in cash/card retail flows) a fiscal receipt.
• Bank statement / payment confirmation — proves the money moved, not what it was for.
• Pro-forma invoice / quote — non-binding pricing offer.
• Shipping document (տրանսպորտային բեռնագիր, transportayin bernagir) — for goods movement, not payment.

When somebody refers to "the receipt" in the context of fiscalization, they almost always mean the fiscal receipt — the one with the QR code and the fiscal number on it.

Verifying a receipt you received

If you suspect a receipt isn't fiscally valid:

1. Scan the QR code. It should resolve to an SRC verification page (URLs in the src.am / taxservice.am family).
2. Compare what SRC's page shows against the printed receipt — seller, amount, date, line items.
3. If the QR doesn't resolve or the fiscal number is absent, the receipt is not fiscal — that's a compliance failure on the seller's side. You can report it to SRC through the official clarifications portal.

Sources

• Tax Code, Article 381 (paragraph 3) — content of fiscal receipts and CR application rules (Armenian original on ARLIS)
• SRC State Revenue Committee — official site

Where to go from here

• Hardware vs virtual cash register — both produce identical fiscal receipts.
• Product marking (e-Mark) and fiscal receipts — what changes on the receipt for marked goods.
• Glossary — quick definitions for the acronyms in this article.