Five main points of the bill against tax evasion

Done by “Bing image creator, powered by DALL-E”.

A number of measures to combat tax evasion are included in the provisions of the new tax bill, presented today and approved by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Kostis Hatzidakis, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

Among them, in particular, is a new regulation changing the data for the taxation of freelancers, as announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his presentation. According to Mr. Hatzidakis, we are talking about a set of measures that have a pronounced social character.

The bill is based on five areas:

1. Use of modern technologies.
2. Limiting the use of cash:
   • the obligation to buy and sell real estate only using bank means of payment;
   • payment of benefits using a debit card;
   • strict sanctions for the use of cash in transactions exceeding 500 euros;
   • mandatory electronic transactions between enterprises on excisable goods.
3. Transparency and effective control.
4. Intervention in short-term rentals:
   • compliance with VAT, visitor tax and climate resilience levy;
   • mandatory start of business for individuals with three or more real estate properties;
   • tougher penalties;
   • increase in fines for failure to register in the register of short-term rental properties.
5. A fair taxation system for liberal professions.

Business tax deduction

From 2024, a benchmark for imputed income will be established for freelancers and the self-employed, which cannot be lower than the basic salary. Those showing income above this imputed income threshold will be automatically exempt from 50% income tax from 2024. For others, the deduction will be 25%.

As for imputed income, its size may be limited for enterprises with several years of operation, and for individual entrepreneurs, on the contrary, it may be increased:

1. more years of work;
2. with a large number of employees;
3. significantly higher turnover than the industry average.

The goal is to combat tax evasion

The new tax bill will include announcements made by the Prime Minister on TIF aimed at tackling tax evasion. In particular, 10 measures were announced to combat tax evasion:

1. Completing the integration of cash registers with POS so that every transaction is recorded on the cash register and the data is transmitted to AADE in near real time.
2. Electronic invoices will become mandatory during 2024, allowing transactions to be cross-checked and verified in real time.
3. Widespread introduction of e-books (myDATA). The declared income cannot be less than the income received as a result of the use of electronic information (myDATA, cash-POS), and only those that were transferred electronically to myDATA will be taken into account as expense invoices for tax purposes.
4. Extending the obligation to have an electronic payment system (EFT/POS) to other sectors of the retail market that currently do not have such an obligation
5. Carrying out the procedure for buying and selling real estate only using bank means of payment.
6. Activation of the digital invoice in pilot mode from the beginning of 2024 and full activation by the end of the same year.
7. Increasing the fine for using cash in excess of 500 euros to twice the transaction amount.
8. Payment of most social benefits (children’s, childbirth, unemployment) using debit cards.
9. Removal of violators involved in smuggling from cooperation with all companies involved in the sale of fuel.
10. Intervention in the short-term rental sector to cross-register income, ensure a level playing field in the tourism market and further develop the sector.

Source link