The deadline for hundreds of thousands of freelancers to register with the IRIS payment system in order to accept payments from their clients expires in one week.
Those who have not done so by June 30 will face a fine of 1,500 euros, while those who do not register a business account will be asked to pay a fine of 1,000 euros. The next milestone is July 1, when the inspections by the competent authorities will begin to identify the violators.
It is worth noting that in the event that a fine is imposed, those who pay it within 30 days of its notification will be reduced by 50%. At the same time, in case of complaints from citizens about non-acceptance of payments with IRIS by professionals, these will be notified by the competent bodies to the AADE and the General Secretariat of Tax Policy in order to be taken into account during the planning and carrying out of audits under their jurisdiction.
Approximately 300,000 of the 750,000 professionals have installed the IRIS system.
As already announced by the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis, the direct payment system will be extended to all businesses by March 31, 2025. The expansion concerns the entire range of transactions, electronic and physical trade.
Based on the latest figures, instant payments are growing as registered IRIS users now exceed 2.6 million, of which over 405,000 have signed up since January. Furthermore:
-From the beginning of 2024 until April, 111,000 IRIS Person to Business transactions took place compared to only 11,000 last year, i.e. they increased tenfold.
-A third of the obliged self-employed and freelancers – i.e. 280,000 out of a total of around 900,000 – have gone online as 150,000 users in 2023 were added by another 125,000 (an increase of around 80%).
