Taxpayers will now be able to get a tax registration number (AFM) via video call. 

Businesses that have seen their incomes shrink during the coronavirus pandemic will continue to be exonerated from paying taxes until the end of the year and will, thereafter, benefit from a favorable payments schedule, Alternate Finance Minister Theodoros Skylakakis said in an interview which aired on ANT1 TV Friday.

The authorities have granted a one-month extension for submitting tax returns on earned 2019 income to August 28, but for many taxpayers, holidays get priority. Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) data show that the rate of submission has actually slowed down. 

About 35% of businesses and independent professionals who have submitted tax returns on their 2019 income have seen a drop in earnings that dispenses them from having to pay advance taxes on 2020 earnings, according to data released on Wednesday by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR). 

About 80% of all businesses will prepay a smaller portion of their taxes, with most seeing a 50% reduction.

 

Greece must “become the California of Europe,” insists Cypriot Nobel Laureate Sir Christopher Pissarides, chairman of the committee of experts which delivered its report last week to the government for the country’s long-term growth strategy.

The Greek economic recovery plan to be forwarded to the European Commission in October will attribute great significance to supporting workers through the reduction of taxes and social security contributions that have hampered the real economy and fed the illegal economy, sources from the prime minister’s office say.

Russia’s Finance Ministry said on Friday it had agreed to a round of talks with Cyprus on Monday and Tuesday in Moscow over the fate of a bilateral agreement aimed at avoiding double taxation. 

More than 500,000 property owners – private individuals as well as enterprises – stand to benefit from the abolition of the supplementary property tax, as the advisory committee to the Finance Ministry is proposing.

On a trip Thursday to the remote southeastern Aegean island of Halki, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he wants to introduce a provision to reduce the ENFIA property tax for small islands. 

Seeking to stimulate Greece’s battered middle class, a committee chaired by Nobel Prize-winning economist Sir Christopher Pissarides, which has been tasked with drafting a long-term growth strategy for the country, is recommending that tax rates on the incomes of private individuals in that bracket be slashed.

The calculation of this year’s Single Property Tax (ENFIA) dues, which will be the same as last year’s but paid in six tranches instead of five, will begin in early September.

The tax administration will impose heavy fines and even shut down businesses for up to 20 months if they are found to have been tampering with their cash registers or using illegal software systems for hiding transactions and evading value-added tax payment.

The government is granting taxpayers a second extension to the deadline for the uploading of their income tax declarations until August 28, due to the special conditions of the coronavirus crisis, Deputy Finance Minister Apostolos Vesyropoulos said on Thursday.

The deadline for the submission of income declarations may be extended into August, but taxpayers who put it off until next month will likely have to pay a double tranche towards their bill in end-August.

Income tax declarations submitted as of Tuesday night will be processed on the basis of a new payment plan for up to eight installments.

The new tax bill tabled in Parliament provides for zero tax on cash gifts of up to 150,000 euros made by parents to help their children acquire a home and ascending rates ranging from 1% to 10% for amounts above €150,000.

The Finance Ministry is planning to gradually return value-added tax rates to lower levels as of 2021, expecting to boost consumption while increasing tax compliance.

Changes to the law on the payment of the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) debt that were voted in Parliament a few days ago also point to an extension for the submission of income tax declarations.

The national development plan to start applying in 2021 will contain reforms focused on the gradual reduction of tax rates and social security contributions, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Tuesday.