Chrysostomos Tsoufis

By the end of the year, early 2024 at the latest, the Treasury will be ready to move forward with the tax reform bill about 611,000 freelancers and self-employed.

A major goal of the Ministry is to increase declared incomes, which will also mean more income for the state budget, as its political leadership notes, it is not possible to have freelancers with incomes of €1000 and €2000 per year. Quantitatively, according to officials of the Ministry of Finance, the increase in the tax burden on self-employed professionals must rise to such a level that they can be “returned” the professional fee, i.e. the changes should increase taxation by at least €480 million. In fact, Haris Theocharis assured that the government is determined to bear any political costs.

At the same time, however, expenses will be limited and the various financial aids will be given the opportunity to be more targeted, since this group of taxpayers declares that 70% of them make less than €10,000 per year and consequently are the biggest beneficiaries of the various allowances and benefits . The first step it has already been done since this year the heating allowance will be given to self-employed professionals who have declared a turnover of more than €80,000 per year and officials of the Ministry of Finance did not deny to that this regulation could also act as a “compass” for future benefits . However, they categorically rejected the possibility of setting minimum income criteria for granting allowances to self-employed and freelancers.

Various proposals are on the table for changes to the taxation of this particular professional group. After all, the Ministry of Finance now has at its disposal the proposals of IOBE for the direction to be followed.

Central role owns of course the tax scale which the Ministry of Finance he does not deny that he is considering “teasing”. The prevailing scenarios call for an increase in the tax rate for incomes up to €10,000 from 9% to 15% or even 20%.

Also under consideration is the framework of deductible expenses. The Ministry is considering “rationalizing” the list of expenses that reduce the taxpayer’s income and thus the final tax imposed.

Here, the universality of myDATA will also work in addition, as no expense will be recognized if it has not been declared in the electronic books, and therefore the expenses cannot be more than what the books show, and the income cannot be less.

POS-Cashier interface as well as expansion of POS use in retail (taxis, kiosks, gyms, outdoor markets, cinemas, etc.) will also increase the declared material.

According to the calculations of Haris Theoharis, the undeclared incomes in general in the country range between €25-30 billion, of which tax evasion is €8-10 billion. The goal is for 50% of this to go into the public coffers, i.e. approximately €4-5 billion.