April 27, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Ministry of Finance excludes cash payments


The Ministry of Finance is considering a number of measures aimed at reducing tax evasion and setting as its main goal “to transfer everything to electronic form.”

Mandatory electronic payment of rent, changes in the payment of social benefits, restrictions on the use of cash, mandatory electronic invoicing – these are the measures that are planned to be taken to close the “holes” in tax evasion.

The incentive measures applied so far have not brought the expected results. Therefore, proposals have appeared in the Ministry of Finance that change the usual procedure for conducting daily operations.

Rent: Compulsory payment via web banking only

The tenant will have to pay the rent by transferring it to the bank account of the landlord electronically through web banking.

If he fails to do so, it will be deemed that the rent has not been paid. At the same time, this will be a tax offense for both the tenant and the landlord, and the tax office will impose a fine on both.

Changes in Social Benefits

Social benefits will be paid to prepaid cards. That is, for cards that will be issued in the coming months, and people will be able to make transactions only with these cards. Thus, it will no longer be necessary to deposit the benefit amount into a bank account.

Blocking the use of cash

The issue of reducing the use of cash for transactions in the amount of less than 500 euros. Of course, this measure was discussed before, but met with objections from the European Central Bank.

Consideration is now being given to tougher penalties for those who do not comply with this measure and not only accept payments in the amount of more than 500 euros in cashbut also “breaks” this amount into receipts in order to avoid a fine from the tax authorities. The fine is 100 euros.

Changes related to incentives for issuing checks

Consideration is being given to introducing new incentives to encourage people to demand receipts. The measures taken so far have not had a significant impact. Incentives in the form of a tax credit of up to 2,200 euros were provided to those who paid electronically for services provided by industries such as plumbing, electrical, etc., but in practice they did not work.

The creation of a new taxation system for checks is currently under consideration.

The expansion of POS payments to all types of economic activity is coming, which is expected in early 2024.

It turned out that kindergartens, taxis, real estate agencies avoid using cards.

Mandatory electronic invoicing is introduced.
Changes are made to professional expenses, only those recorded in MyDATA e-books are recognized.



Source link

Verified by MonsterInsights