Just got the invoice by email. Noticed this:
LMAO…
This rounding principle applied when paying cash. I pay electronnically. I will not be paying the rounding difference.
I wonder if this is done because people may pay in cash (e.g. at a swiss post).
Can they legally enforce this ‘rounding’, if people pay electronically?
Er, that appears on almost all of my Swiss bills. Half the time you gain 2 centimes - the other half you lose 2 centimes.
That’s an interesting question. I think the answer is in the meaning of “rounding”.
If I remember well, invoices only show 2 decimals because people is literally too dumb to understand more than 2 decimals. I don’t know who decided this, but this is where we are.
For example, Swiss VAT is 8.1%. Save for a few exceptions, any VAT calculation will end up creating a more than 2 decimals:
Then, take electricity. Prices of kWh have several decimals which are also not shown in the bill. Multiplying any number by a price with 4 decimals will create a number with 4 decimals.
So, the rounding is to catch all the decimals beyond the 3rd lost in the calculations. If you multiply and add all the numbers in the bill, the numbers literally don’t add up until you include the “rounding”.
I’d assume that when an invoice includes “rounding” it means it’s a business that invoice small amounts and the business model has razor thin net margins. If they don’t do this, they may be leaving literal 2 cents in the table.
Actually I believe that when Switzerland stopped circulating the 1 centime piece they instructed retailers to round OFF. i.e. .01-.02 rounds down to .00 while .03-.04 rounds up tp .05. etc
So the rounding would apply to cash payments.
I am going to electronically pay the exact amount and see what surrise/yallo does.
Nothing to do with payments, it’s reported for accounting purposes to prevent fraud.