By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

With steady steps, the Ministry of Finance unfolds its available arsenal to limit tax evasion and strengthen public coffers, with the aim of €2 billion by 2026.

The last move has to do with his decision Deputy Minister of Finance Haris Theohariswhich makes it mandatory to prefill income, expenses and corresponding taxes in the periodic VAT declarations of businesses with the aim of facilitating them in fulfilling their tax obligations.

The decision has a retrospective nature as it provides that the pre-filling is done based on the data transmitted to myDATA and their accounting classification by the businesses liable to declare for the VAT returns submitted from 1.1.2024 onwards.

This ensures the basic rule that the income cannot be less and the expenditure cannot be more than what they pass on to the myDATA digital platform Businesses. At the moment, a 30% discrepancy is predicted, separate in revenues and expenses, but the goal of the leadership of the Ministry of Finance is for the percentage of the discrepancy to decrease gradually until it becomes zero.

The data of the pre-filled VAT returns will be locked, that is, the entrepreneur will not be able to correct them unless he is going to either increase the reported income or reduce the reported expenses.

This measure comes to fit with the interconnection of the cash registers with the POSthe process of which is proceeding normally.

The 35 new branches of the retail market to which the mandatory use of POS was extended have been given an extension until February 29 to obtain (or at least have ordered) the “machines” without being threatened by the €1500 fine.

The goal and a big bet for him Kostis Hatzidakis it is until February 29 to have full connection of POS and cash registers. Despite everything – and despite the fact that the Minister of Finance does not even want to hear about an extension – circles of the ministry commented on that they cannot rule out an extension due to what they said were characteristics of physical limitations. Throughout the Greek territory there are only 600 specialized technicians who have undertaken the task of connecting more than 500,000 cash registers with POS.

If to all this is added the change in the way freelancers and self-employed people are taxed with the imposition of a minimum presumptive income, then the potential benefit for public coffers can exceed €2.5 billion by 2026.