IRIS: From January 1, payments are mandatory for freelancers

From January 1, 2024, all freelancers who keep a business account, must accept payments from system IRIS.

Article 46 of the extrajudicial bill which was tabled in the Parliament, brings the activation of the measure much earlier than the original planning, as it had been incorporated into the bill during the consultation and concerned the activation of the provision from 1 December 2024.

Payments through the IRIS system are made easily within seconds from the mobile phone of consumers without any commission for transactions up to 500 euros.

The IRIS System

The IRIS system enters the everyday life of consumers and all freelancers in less than a month and a half, opening the way for transactions of up to 500 euros without fees for professionals, with payments still being made immediately and without the use of a phone number.

The consumers, once they have activated the IRIS service in mobile banking will be able to make their payments within seconds by entering the TIN or the mobile phone of the professional, data which for convenience can be provided in the form of a QR Code to be scanned.

The mention of the QR Code for IRIS payments will be printed on the body of the receipt issued so that its issuance precedes the payment.

The new provisions require payees, who accept payment cards, and payees who are required to accept payments through a direct payment service, to inform consumers about the acceptance of cards and means of payment of the payment card system, in a clear way that is not open to misinterpretation.

This information must be clearly displayed at the store entrance and at the checkout, as well as on the website through which they accept payments.

To date, the registered freelancers and self-employed people in the IRIS service are 117,000, i.e. only 10% of the total number of freelancers in our country, who number in total about 1.3 million.