Few terms in the German trade cause as much confusion as Fiskaltaxameter — and few are used as freely by vendors selling something else. This piece exists primarily in German, written for the operators it binds; this English version summarises the position for everyone else.
The one-sentence version: since 1 January 2026, Germany’s certified-security-device duty (TSE) attaches to the measuring device in the vehicle — the taximeter or the Wegstreckenzähler — not to any office or dispatch software. A vendor promising “TSE compliance” through a software update is promising something that does not exist in that form.
The legal chain
The duty comes from tax law, in three steps. § 146a of the Abgabenordnung (the fiscal code) requires electronic recording systems to be protected by a zertifizierte technische Sicherheitseinrichtung — a certified security module that signs every record tamper-proof. The Kassensicherungsverordnung then defines which systems are caught, and it expressly lists “Taxameter im Sinne des Anhangs IX zu der Richtlinie 2014/32/EU (EU-Taxameter) und Wegstreckenzähler” — EU taximeters and odometer-based fare counters. And the transition ended on schedule: the finance ministry’s non-objection letter of 13 October 2023 tolerated TSE-less devices only until 31 December 2025. Since 1 January 2026, operating without an attached TSE is no longer permissible.
“Fiskaltaxameter” is not a statutory term — it is the trade’s name for exactly this combination: an EU-taximeter whose records are secured by a certified TSE.
Who is caught
Taxi firms with taximeters, obviously. But the point German chauffeur operators underestimate is that private hire is in scope too: § 30(1) BOKraft requires a Wegstreckenzähler in Mietwagen (“In Mietwagen ist ein leicht ablesbarer Wegstreckenzähler anzubringen”), the same provision now expressly allowing a conformity-assessed software-based system as an alternative — and Wegstreckenzähler are listed in the Kassensicherungsverordnung. Whether and how a specific vehicle must be equipped, and what exemptions a licensing authority grants, varies — that question belongs to the authority, not to a blog post.
There is also a reporting duty (§ 146a(4) AO): devices and their TSEs must be reported to the tax office electronically via ELSTER, per vehicle; the deadline for existing devices passed in mid-2025, and acquisitions and decommissionings are reported on an ongoing basis (as of August 2026). If you are not sure your fleet was reported, that is a call to your tax adviser before it becomes a letter from the Finanzamt.
Why dispatch software cannot solve it — ours included
Disclosure first: we build RideDesk, dispatch software for chauffeur, private hire and transfer operators. RideDesk is not a TSE, contains no TSE and replaces none — and the same is true of every other dispatch or booking product, whatever its marketing says.
The reason is structural. The TSE secures the records of the device that measures the fare, certified and calibrated, in the vehicle. Dispatch software sits at a different point in the chain: it records orders, quotes and invoices — the separate duty under § 49(4) PBefG, the Auftragseingangsbuch, which may expressly be kept electronically and has nothing to do with the taximeter world. Two duties, two systems, two sets of counterparties: the taximeter manufacturer, workshop and tax adviser for the TSE; your dispatch system and licensing authority for the order-intake record.
Distrust any offer that blends the two. A vendor promising TSE compliance for pure software has either misunderstood the law or hopes you have — either way, as we put it in the German category comparison, that is a reason to end the conversation.
The one-afternoon checklist, for any German fleet: a certified TSE attached to every taximeter and Wegstreckenzähler; every device and TSE reported via ELSTER, including the car added in spring; the TSE certificate’s expiry date known and the swap planned; and the Auftragseingangsbuch kept separately and completely, because the TSE does not replace it.
General information as of August 2026, not legal or tax advice. Statutory quotes from § 146a AO, § 1 KassenSichV and § 30 BOKraft (gesetze-im-internet.de, retrieved August 2026). Duties and deadlines change — settle your specific case with a tax adviser and your licensing authority.
