The commander of AADE, Giorgos Pitsilis, stated: “Consistent with our commitment to constantly become better for the benefit of society as a whole, last year we worked intensively to offer solutions in a number of areas, which significantly affect taxpayers’ relations with our tax services, the digital deepening of our services by strengthening further infrastructures that expand the quality and quantity of services and at the same time increase our efficiency at all levels».

In detail, the 23 projects of 2023 are as follows:

Tax refunds

1. Record tax refunds of more than 6.9 billion euros. It is the largest amount ever returned in one year. At the same time, through central offsets and refunds, reductions in pending tax refund applications were achieved by 40% compared to 2022.

2. Total personal income tax returns on a weekly basis. By the deadline for submitting income tax returns, 367,139,293.08 euros were offset or refunded to 1,224,791 taxpayers (a total of 87.06% of refund beneficiaries).

3. Digital VAT refund to farmers of the special regime: Refunds in the amount of 44,048,200.00 euros were made to 131,540 TINs (a 41.78% increase in the amount and a 35.74% increase in the number of TINs compared to 2022).

POS Interface with Cash Systems

4. For the upgrades of Cash Registers, expansion of interface specifications, and new regulatory framework for the interconnection of POS with the Cash Systems of businesses, actions were planned and completed for:

* 112 Approved cash register upgrades (FIM-OCR) with interface capability

* 29 payment service providers and POS providers, which are almost all providers, submitted a Declaration of Conformity with the new interface specifications

* 119 POS Models, for which a Declaration of Conformity has been submitted by Providers

5. Creation of a POS Register: The 1,000,000 POS used by 550,000 businesses in Greece were registered in a special register.

Property Taxation

6. Expansion of functions and increase of declarations in myPROPERTY. Addition of new cases of digital submission of returns and increase of returns and taxes, ascertained through the platform, in relation to 2022:

* Increase in digital declarations by 73.5% (396,755 declarations)

* Increase in taxes, digitally certified, by 64% (601,312,368.84 euros of certified taxes)

7. Automation of E9 declaration: Almost 90,000 E9 declarations following the purchase and sale of real estate (60% of E9 declarations), were issued automatically through myPROPERTY.

8. New simplified ENFIA digital certificates, to facilitate the purchase and sale of real estate with the simultaneous implementation of all the legislative provisions for the abolition of certificates that delayed the completion of real estate transfers.

Strategic response and new digital audit and tax compliance tools

9. Operations Room: Supports real-time operations of tax and customs audits across the territory. With the utilization of Artificial Intelligence and the use of modern control tools, it is possible to record the goals and better prepare the action plan, secure communication between the control mechanisms of AADE through a central communication system, the direct transmission of information with photos and videos from the control points, the real-time risk analysis and the simultaneous support of the controllers with documents, as well as with images from unmanned systems (eg drone).

10. CHECKlive: This is a digital application, which was implemented in August, and which completes the control on the spot, issuing the electronic note with taxes and fines in case of violations.

11. “Citizen Complaints” platform. Through it, the complainant, either named or anonymous, is given the opportunity to provide information, choosing one or more of the following thematic categories: 1. Corruption – integrity violations, 2. Tax violations, 3. Customs violations. Complaints/information submitted through the application are channeled systematically and automatically, depending on their subject and content, to the competent structures for further investigation or control as the case may be. From October 30, 2023 until today, 2,075 complaints have been submitted (394 named and 1,681 anonymous) as follows:

* 1,807 for tax violations

* 72 for customs violations

* 196 for integrity issues

12. Signing of an updated memorandum of cooperation (MoU) with Airbnb, Booking and Vrbo (Expedia) platforms. Changes were agreed, which lead to the qualitative and quantitative upgrading of the data exchanged with the aim of their more effective management by AADE, in order to fully ensure the identification of accommodation managers for compliance and control purposes. The cooperation with the three platforms has yielded visible results. From the “Application of Short-term Property Leasing” of AADE, it appears that during the period of the first 10 months of the year 2023 in relation to the corresponding period of the year 2022, there was a percentage increase in the submitted declarations by 36% (from 1,247,904 to 1,695,957 declarations ) and an increase in declared rents by 167,404,869 euros (from 510,078,380 to 677,483,249 euros – an increase of 33%).

Upgrade of Tax Registry services

13. TINs without application to minor children: 375,000 TINs were issued digitally without application to minors over 12 years of age.

14. New process of digital rendering of TIN and Key, to minimize visits to the DOU. AADE became the first public service to serve citizens via video call on myAADElive directly and without an appointment. Within 2023, 22,201 key numbers were assigned automatically, through mobile identification.

15. Digital registration certificates. Natural persons and businesses can obtain a certificate of their current image, without submitting a request or visiting the DOU. By 2023, 786,402 QRC registry certificates were digitally issued to natural persons and 1,311,371 certificates to businesses.

16. Interface with GEMI for Limited Companies: Almost 17,000 changes (87% of changes) in GEMI regarding the capital, name, duration and expiration of the SAs, as well as their representatives, were automatically updated in the Tax Registry, through the interface with GEMI, without visiting the DOU.

17. Digital Tax Residence Certificate: Over 13,000 tax residence certificates were issued with the new digital process, through the myAADE portal.

New digital facilities in tax declarations and payments

18. Digital version of Tax Information also in case of debts. As of 23/10/2023, more than 60,000 proofs of awareness of transfers of real estate and collections of money from public bodies, which required a visit to the DOU, were issued digitally. Furthermore, the digital application was upgraded by incorporating functionalities resulting from AADE’s collaboration with the country’s notarial associations, in order to further facilitate real estate transfers.

19. Automation of the VAT and withholding tax declaration and immediate display in “My Account”, in the myAADE digital portal. The new functionality allows taxpayers to immediately pay or settle the tax due from the myAADE portal, via IRIS or card and receive tax information immediately, without waiting for the payment to be transferred from their bank to AADE, through payment with Debt ID.

20. Upgrades of the myDATA platform and pilot prefilling of E3 declarations with the data that businesses transmit to the myDATA platform.

Financial aids

21. Payments to fire and flood victims: 141,782,055.65 euros to 36,584 beneficiaries

22. myHEATING:

– For the period 2022-2023: Amount of 279,914,009.83 euros to 1,074,559 beneficiaries

– For the period 2023-2024: Amount of 175,637,095.36 euros to 763,307 beneficiaries (advance payment)

Evolution of AADE’s operational model

23. The major organizational evolution of AADE was implemented, for its more efficient operation and better service to citizens and businesses. In this context, the following were recommended:

*the General Directorate of Tax Operations, for the organization and monitoring and coordination of all the work of the control, collection and tax service services

*the General Directorate of Taxation, to define the regulatory framework for the operation of the AADE tax services

*the Risk Management Department, for recording, monitoring and dealing with all operational risks of AADE

*the Certification and Collection Center (KEBEIS) of Attica, in which all the corresponding departments of the 26 DOUs of Attica were consolidated.