Ministry of Finance: three pillars of the plan to combat tax evasion

According to rough estimates, the amount of tax evasion can be from 8 to 10 billion euros per year, half of which can probably be returned, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance H. Theoharis said in an interview with radio SKAI and Pavlos Tsima.

If tax evasion were eliminated, which is unrealistic, then with this amount the state could double the budget of the Ministry of Health, which is 6.1 billion euros, or the Ministry of Education, which reaches 5.2 billion euros, and at the same time abolish ENFIA.

In an interview with SKAI yesterday, the Prime Minister also touched on the topic of tax evasion, which he described as the ultimate social injustice. To fight him, according to Mitsotakis, “We have the desire. It will show, you can say you don’t believe me, but we will show it, we will show it in practice. We have the know-how and we have more tools at our disposal.” The relationship between cash desks, POS systems, the Ministry of Finance – all these projects are being implemented. The way we control the entire supply chain, electronic invoices. And, of course, the use of Bigdata”.

Tax evasion is at the forefront, and already now the economic staff has begun planning new measures to be launched in the fall and accelerating others already taken. Revenues from the fight against tax evasion are the main source for the implementation of the announced benefits without compromising the achievement of fiscal goals.

Efforts will be made to close as many “holes” in the tax system as possible.

As Mr. Theoharis noted, “An anti-avoidance plan has several pillars.

First is the expansion of the use of new electronic payment methods, for example, the POS and cash register consolidation, which we are squeezing a little so that it happens in early 2024, electronic invoicing and other things that we hear about, but now it’s time to implement them .

Second the direction is to strengthen checks and cross-checks so that all this richness of data can be exploited. The inspections should be more focused, short and small, said the Deputy Minister, pointing out that it is better for the tax administration to carry out five inspections, each of which will take 1/5 of the time, instead of one inspection at a time. Thus, inspections affect a greater number of enterprises, and an atmosphere is created that this happens everywhere.

Third the component is the structure of the tax system itself, in the sense that there is a system that favors tax evasion and a system that plugs holes and discourages it. Here we have the example of freelancers, who we all feel have a much higher margin than salaried employees and retirees.

The financiers and AADE are planning for the next day and will apparently try to close as many holes in the tax system as possible to prevent tax avoidance and avoidance. Of the 8-10 billion alleged tax evasion, Theoharis said, 3.5 billion is VAT, the corresponding amount is income tax, and about 3 billion euros is other taxes.

Electronic connection of cash registers with POS in early 2024, mandatory e-invoicing, digital invoice and POS extension to all activities are the measures that will be immediately promoted by the economic staff. In particular, the following is planned:

• Automate and digitize AADE audits using the latest digital technologies.
• Introduction of penalties for non-transfer of data to MyDATA after a reasonable adjustment period.
• Payment service providers located outside of Greece will also be required to transmit data to AADE.
• Social benefits will be paid using debit cards.
• Mandatory electronic invoicing. The benefits of e-invoicing for businesses include faster tax refunds, a three-year statute of limitations for tax cases, and excess depreciation of process equipment.
• Distribution of POS to all sectors of the economy.
• A new online platform for citizens to report cases of tax evasion and smuggling. The platform will collect all complaints from citizens, both anonymous and non-anonymous. In particular, citizens wishing to report a violation will go to a platform that will be open to everyone – i.e. no Taxisnet passwords are required to enter the online application – and fill out a special form with the information necessary to report a violation.

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