EFD Machines in Tanzania: Who Needs One and How TRA Registers It

This page is the electronic fiscal device operating file: who must buy one, which of the four device classes fits the till, and how the serial gets onto TRA’s system. It is not a receipt-content manual or a price list.

• What the printed receipt must show: EFD receipt rules
• Whether VAT registration comes first: VAT threshold and returns
• The TIN the device header copies: TIN registration

As at 14 September 2026. Confirm tra.go.tz (and zanrevenue.org for Zanzibar premises); this file rests on Cap. 438, the Electronic Fiscal Devices Regulations under it, the VAT Act, Cap. 148 and the Income Tax Act, Cap. 332.

The rule: section 36, the Regulations and the TZS 11 million line

The duty sits in section 36 of Cap. 438 (section 44 in the latest revised edition) and in the Regulations made under it. Two classes are caught. First, every VAT-registered person: the Mainland threshold is TZS 200 million of taxable turnover in twelve months; voluntary registrants are caught too. Second, any trader outside VAT whose turnover reaches TZS 11 million a year: the line at which the First Schedule to Cap. 332 stops allowing presumptive tax without records; the band up to TZS 100 million pays 3.5% of turnover with books and a device. Below that line the machine is optional; the customer’s right to demand a receipt is not.

The Commissioner General may exclude a class of persons from the receipt duty by notice under section 36(2). Exclusions are TRA’s list; since July 2024 your own deduction depends on whether a supplier sits on it, so ask for the notice.

VAT is not a Union tax. Premises in Zanzibar register for Zanzibar VAT with the Zanzibar Revenue Authority (ZRA), whose threshold is TZS 100 million, and issue receipts through ZRA’s own virtual fiscal system; a TRA serial does not appear there. Income tax remains a Union matter under TRA, so a Zanzibar trader agrees with both desks which receipt evidences which return before buying hardware. A device cures nothing about a reserved activity: GN No. 487A of 2025 decides whether a non-citizen may trade in the line at all; screen that first.

ETR, EFP, ESD or VFD: matching the device to the till

An EFP at the counter with a VFD inside the ERP is a common pairing. Each point of sale needs its own serial, tied to one TIN and one premises.

Approved suppliers and what fiscalisation means

Only models on TRA’s approved-supplier list may be sold, and only that supplier or its authorised distributor may fiscalise one: writing the taxpayer’s TIN, VRN, trading name and premises into the fiscal memory, activating the SIM to the Electronic Fiscal Device Management System and recording the serial against the TIN. From then on every receipt is numbered, signed, stored in a memory the user cannot edit and transmitted, with a Z-report closing each trading day. TRA charges nothing for the EFDMS entry; the cost is the supplier’s tax invoice for the unit, SIM and support. A device bought elsewhere is unregistered, whatever its paper says.

Registration sequence, in the order the desks take it

1. Hold the TIN, and the VRN where VAT applies: the header copies both; nobody fiscalises against a pending application.
2. Map the billing flow: counters, ERP invoicing, online checkout, and assign each point of sale a class from the table.
3. Pick a supplier from TRA’s live list and check the model runs the current protocol software (the 2.1 generation), not older stock.
4. Pay the supplier and hand over the registration pack; the supplier lodges it, fiscalises the unit and enters the serial on EFDMS.
5. Verify the entry with the TRA regional office, print a test receipt and check the header against the certificates.
6. Complete the integration: certified POS driver for an EFP, ERP signing for an ESD, API credentials and TRA test cases for a VFD.
7. Go live: first Z-report at close of day one, staff briefed that every sale and advance is receipted, Z-reports kept for the Act’s five-year record period.

The registration pack

• Business TIN certificate, not the director’s personal one, and the VAT certificate showing the VRN where registered
• BRELA certificate of incorporation or business-name certificate, in the name the header will carry
• Business licence under the Business Licensing Act, Cap. 208, or the sector licence that replaces it
• Lease or title for the premises, with a physical address TRA can visit
• NIDA number or passport of the signing director, with a letter of authority if a delegate signs
• Supplier’s tax invoice quoting model and serial number; for a VFD, the software vendor’s name and sandbox test evidence
• For a replacement unit: the old serial and TRA’s closure note for it

Integration with billing systems: advances, credit notes and the API

Receipt content is the sibling file’s subject. What matters here: an ERP invoice without the fiscal signature is a commercial document, and no input tax can be claimed on it under the VAT Act.

Since the Finance Act 2022 amendment to section 86 (now 97), the receipt falls due when payment is received, not when goods leave the warehouse; advances are receipted on the day and the final invoice adjusted. Credit notes, returns and discounts also pass through the device, so the ERP-to-device mapping must include them: a manual credit note outside the fiscal chain leaves TRA’s sales ledger higher than yours. For a VFD, each live receipt must return TRA’s verification code before it prints.

Breakdown, loss, relocation and closure

A fault does not suspend the duty. Notify the supplier and the TRA regional office in writing at once (the Regulations count the reporting window in hours, and this desk works to 24), and trade only on a backup registered unit or receipts TRA has authorised, logging every sale for re-entry. Repairs go through the approved supplier; an outside technician who opens the fiscal seal turns a fault into tampering. Theft needs a police loss report and the same notice, because the serial stays live until TRA closes it. Moving premises, renaming the business or transferring a unit to a branch is a TRA notification made before the move. Closure means deregistering the device with the final returns; a serial left open keeps the TIN visible as trading.

Offences under section 86 (now 97), on both sides of the counter

The seller’s offences (failing to acquire or use a device, failing to issue a fiscal receipt, issuing a false one, misleading EFDMS, tampering) carry on conviction a fine of not less than 20% of the value of the goods or services or 100 currency points, whichever is greater, capped at 200 currency points, or imprisonment for up to three years, or both. A buyer who fails to demand a receipt, or to report a refusal, faces at least 20% of the tax evaded or 2 currency points, whichever is greater. The Act values a currency point at TZS 20,000 in the current text; confirm the live schedule on tra.go.tz before relying on the conversion. Conviction sits beside the assessment TRA raises on the unreceipted sales, with interest and penalty.

Illustrative arithmetic, not a quotation

A Dar es Salaam wholesaler sells stock for TZS 5,000,000 plus VAT at 18% (TZS 900,000; total TZS 5,900,000) and hands over a delivery note instead of a fiscal invoice.

• Seller, on conviction: the floor is the greater of 20% × TZS 5,000,000 = TZS 1,000,000 and 100 × TZS 20,000 = TZS 2,000,000, so TZS 2,000,000; the ceiling is 200 × TZS 20,000 = TZS 4,000,000.
• Buyer, income tax: without a fiscal receipt the TZS 5,000,000 is non-deductible under section 11 as amended in 2024; at the 30% corporate rate that is TZS 1,500,000 of tax a receipt would have saved.
• Buyer, VAT: the TZS 900,000 input tax cannot be claimed.
• Buyer, offence: the greater of 20% × TZS 900,000 = TZS 180,000 and 2 × TZS 20,000 = TZS 40,000, so a floor of TZS 180,000.

The buyer carries TZS 2,400,000 of tax plus a TZS 180,000 fine floor on a TZS 5,900,000 purchase. The receipt would have cost nothing.

Where the file stalls

• An ETR bought for a wholesaler invoicing from an ERP: every invoice retyped until staff stop and sales go out unreceipted.
• Unit fiscalised to the director’s personal TIN because the company TIN was “still coming”; a year of receipts in the wrong name.
• Header showing the old trading name after a BRELA name change; customers’ input-tax claims refused on the mismatch.
• Advances booked as deposits and receipted at delivery: a section 86 breach since 2022.
• An earlier-protocol unit kept past TRA’s replacement notice; transmissions fail and Z-reports stack up unsent.
• A Zanzibar outlet issuing TRA receipts with no ZRA registration behind them.

What changed: the 2024 deduction rule, the protocol notice and renumbering

The Finance Act 2024 amended section 11 of Cap. 332: from 1 July 2024 expenditure is deductible only when supported by a valid fiscal receipt, except purchases from non-residents and from suppliers excluded under section 36(2). TRA’s public notice on protocol 2.1 software required older units to be replaced or upgraded; a unit that no longer transmits is treated as no device. The latest revised edition of Cap. 438 renumbered section 36 as 44 and section 86 as 97.

Mandate-holders this file does not replace

TRA owns EFDMS, supplier approval, section 36(2) exclusions, assessments and prosecution. The approved supplier is the only hand permitted on the fiscal memory. ZRA owns Zanzibar VAT receipts; BRELA the name in the header; the local government authority the business licence; your software vendor the VFD integration and its credentials. Zatra prepares the pack, sequences those desks and coordinates supplier and TRA; it does not fiscalise, certify software or issue rulings.

What to confirm before you act

• Twelve-month turnover against TZS 11 million, and against the Mainland or Zanzibar VAT threshold
• Whether your sales or your suppliers fall under a section 36(2) exclusion notice
• The supplier on TRA’s approved list as printed today, and the model’s protocol version
• TIN, VRN and BRELA name identical across the certificates, the header and the invoice template
• One registered serial per point of sale, with the branch list in TRA’s hands
• ERP mapping for advances, credit notes and returns, plus a written outage procedure naming the backup unit
• Separate ZRA registration for any Zanzibar premises