The government imposed objective criteria for the taxation of self-employed people who, until now, declare extremely low incomes, aiming to deal with tax evasion.
The government’s package of interventions incorporates measures such as videotaping of tax audits, encouraging the use of cash under the threat of high fines, expanding the use of POS and linking them to cash registers.
Furthermore, tax audits are becoming stricter, with the addition of new criteria to the audit process, while a reward is provided for those who report documented tax evasion.
The Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, stated that the measures, which will be included in a tax bill, “will lead to the revelation of many cases of tax evasion, and a significant increase in the State’s revenues from the taxation of the self-employed, by 874 million euros.”
In addition to the taxation criteria of the self-employed, the six new measures provide for:
1. Compulsory posting of income and expenses on MyData within 2024. Next year it will be mandatory to post income and expenses on MyData. The income from business activity cannot be less than the expenses that have been posted on the platform.
2. Prohibition of the use of cash in the purchase and sale of real estate.
3. Higher fines for using cash in transactions over 500 euros, to an amount twice the transaction.
4. Paying of the majority of allowances via debit cards.
5. Regulation of the short-term rental market.
6. Cessation of cooperation of fuel trading companies with smuggling offenders.
The remaining four interventions in the market are not included in the bill because they do not need legislative intervention:
1. The interconnection of cash registers with POS in the first months of 2024.
2. The extension of the obligation to have an electronic payment system (EFT/POS) to the remaining sectors of the retail market that currently do not have.
3. The activation of the digital consignment note, on a pilot basis from the beginning of 2024.
4. Within the next year, electronic invoicing will become mandatory (December 31, 2024 is set as the final date, in order for businesses to choose the exclusive use of electronic invoicing).
