Countdown to filing tax returns – What to know – The ‘key’ dates

The time is counting down for the start of filing the 2023 tax returns, which will concern the incomes that taxpayers have acquired within 2022.

The whole process does not hide any particular surprises, and for the second consecutive year, the electronic platform is expected to open in March. The deadline for submitting tax returns is June 30, while the first installment must be paid by July 31.

The resulting tax will be paid in eight equal monthly installments with the last one scheduled to be paid at the end of February 2024. Based on current legislation, those who pay their tax in one lump sum by July 31 receive a 3% discount on the total amount.

The AADE has already sent an instruction to the accounting offices of companies and public bodies to submit electronically by February 28, 2023 the certificates of salaries, pensions, remuneration from business activity, dividends for the tax year 2022.

Based on the salary certificates, the data for the incomes obtained in 2022 as well as the taxes attributable and withheld will be pre-filled in the tax return.

At the same time, the deadline for submitting applications for the granting of a “tax divorce” for those couples who wish to submit separate tax returns is running. It should be noted that even those who submitted a separate tax return in 2022 will have to declare this year that each spouse will submit their own tax return. In the event that neither spouse notifies the relevant request by the end of February, then they will have to submit a joint tax return.

Guidelines to avoid mistakes

In order to avoid mistakes that will put taxpayers in trouble, the governor of AADE, Giorgos Pitsilis, by his decision, gives detailed instructions to employers in order to correctly register the amounts of wages and taxes that have been withheld, clarifying which amounts are tax-free.

The new decision mentions 3 new cases of amounts that are exempt from tax and must be declared separately in income tax:

1. The monthly lifetime honorarium to the Greek hoplites due to their participation in the events in Cyprus in the years 1964, 1967 and 1974, which from 2020 has been defined as tax-free
2. Scholarships and HEI awards that do not constitute income
3. The extraordinary financial aid of 600 euros given in December 2022 to the uniformed personnel of the Ministry of Citizen Protection and the Coast Guard-Hellenic Coast Guard, in which no tax is withheld and is exempt from the special solidarity tax levy.
4. Travel expenses for employees
5. Housing allowance
6. The financial aids given due to crisis (Power Pass, Fuel Pass, Evia & Samos Pass etc).
7. the following OPECA benefits:
* funeral expenses,
* benefits and services of the Rural Home Account,
* welfare benefits, income support and social services to support special and vulnerable groups
* foreign refugee allowance
* extraordinary one-off financial aid to those affected by natural disasters,
* birth allowance (Article 1 of Law 4659/2020) which is exempt from any tax and levy (including the special solidarity levy of Article 43A of Law 4172/2013) and is not counted in the total, real or assumed family income.

They are pre-filled in the declaration but to cover presumptions and not to tax OPECA welfare benefits for uninsured senior citizens, the Minimum Guaranteed Income, the Social Solidarity Allowance and the Homogeneous Refugee Allowance.

Child benefit

The child benefit (A21), where the total of the year’s benefit is indicated, regardless of when it was paid. The same applies to the “accuracy checks” that were given as extraordinary increases in benefits and pensions (e.g. 250 euros in welfare benefits for people with disabilities, for uninsured seniors and beneficiaries of the Minimum Guaranteed Income, etc.). They are accumulated together with the regular allowances and pensions which they supplement.

The following OPEKA benefits for people with disabilities are also shown but not taxed: mobility allowance for paraplegics, quadriplegics etc., nutritional allowance for kidney patients and transplant recipients, financial support for people with severe disabilities, mental retardation, etc., financial support for disabled people who are uninsured and insured by the State , support for people with Mediterranean – sickle cell anemia, etc., support for deaf and hard of hearing people, people with visual impairments, people with cerebral palsy or recovered lepers and their families.

Also according to the relevant decision:

* From 1/1/2022 the non-institutional allowance and any related amount paid to disabled persons, appears in the statement but is excluded from the calculation of income from salaried work and pensions. Any retrospectives with a reference period before 2022 are listed separately in the year/year to which they relate.

* Remuneration to employees with a daily wage and who provide services for a certain period of time but lasting less than one year, as well as to tour guides, for which a 5% withholding tax is carried out, from 14.6.2018
* Remunerations paid by public bodies to private sector workers through the “JOINT WORK” mechanism.

* In cases of retroactive payments concerning deceased persons and which have been collected by the heirs and not by the deceased, no file is sent, as these amounts do not fall under the concept of income.

RES-EMP

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