Taxes in Greece: A double block on “bloating” spending by freelancers and businesses

The Ministry of Finance and the Independent Public Revenue Authority-AADE put a double “block” on the spending tricks used by professionals and entrepreneurs to zero out turnovers of thousands of euros appearing at the Tax Office with zero net profits to avoid paying income tax.

The new self-employed taxation system which will be applied from this year’s incomes which will be taxed in 2024 and myDATA blocks “cooking the books” and the phenomena of artificial inflation of expenses.

With the new system, professionals, even if they show zero profits, will now be taxed with the minimum presumptive income, while with the universal application of myDATA in 2024, the Tax Office will recognize as expense invoices only those that have been transmitted electronically to the myDATA platform.

The audit carried out by AADE on the tax declarations of 3.8 million taxpayers who showed incomes of up to 10,000 euros to the Tax Office reveals extreme cases of tax evasion. Entrepreneurs and professionals, while having turnovers of thousands of euros after “cooking” expenses, reset the counter of net profits to zero, as a result of which they do not pay a single euro of income tax, but only the pretense fee.

The passage of artificial inflation of expenses will be closed with the new type of objective criteria and those who declare incomes above the presumptive income will earn a 50% reduction in the presumption fee while those who show incomes below the minimum presumption will have a 25% reduction in the presumption fee.

Cases AADE has identified

According to the cases identified by AADE:

– A professional in the field of Super Markets since 2016 who employs employees to whom he pays a total of 29,582 euros and has a turnover of 1,344,306 euros. Until today, this professional declared zero profits, had zero tax and only paid a professional fee of 1,850 euros. Under the new taxation system, his taxable presumptive income amounts to €27,756 and the tax will amount to €5,271. That is, he will be charged with 3,422 euros.

– Professional with a convenience store since 1989 with a turnover of 353,018 euros, until today declared zero profits, had zero tax and paid a business fee of €650 euros. With the new taxation system, his taxable income will rise to 19,165 euros and the tax to 2,916 euros. This taxpayer will have a tax increase of 2,266.21 euros.

– Doctor and surgeon since 2014, with a turnover of 133,343 euros, until today he declared zero profits, had zero tax and paid a professional fee of 650 euros. With the new taxation system, his taxable income will rise to 24,024 and the tax to 4,226.72 euros. The taxpayer in question will have a tax increase of 3,576.72 euros.

– Gas station owner since 2013, without employees, has a turnover of 509,300 euros. Until today, he declared zero profits, had zero tax and paid a 650 euro filing fee. It was founded in 2013 and has no employees. With the new taxation system, his taxable income amounts to 12,012 euros, the tax will amount to 1,342.64 euros. The tax payer in question will have an increase of €692.64 compared to the amount he paid until now.