By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Changes to the tax procedure code are being prepared by Ministry of Finance with the aim of adapting the code to modern data. Deputy Finance Minister Haris Theoharis presented the proposed changes to last week’s Cabinet meeting securing the Prime Minister’s green light. The bill is expected to go out for public consultation in about 10-15 days.

The main change brought about by the new code is the introduction of universal/electronic communication between Tax Administration and the Taxpayer. All acts, documents and records will be communicated to the taxpayer digitally to ensure that these transactions are accurately recorded and that neither the content nor even the time and form of the communication can be challenged in court.

The provision of tax information is facilitated and accelerated as – in cases where communication with other bodies is required such as e.g. with the OTAs that have asserted claims against the taxpayer – communication will be done exclusively through interoperability and not “go with me” – come to the tax office and OTA counters.

For the convenience of businesses and professions that keep haplographic books, the obligation to present tax files, books and data for inspection is abolished, since the transmission of these data through the myDATA digital platform is now universally applied.

As it has been announced and we have written here at skai.gr, it will now be possible to automatically compile the income tax return (E1) from home and submit it directly.

In other words, starting this year already, employees and pensioners who have no other source of income will not even be required to submit their tax returns themselves, but will see them pre-filled and ready for submission as soon as they enter their share in Taxis. This is because their incomes are known to AADE and therefore it can be easily determined whether or not they have to pay tax and the amount thereof. In this way, the fastest certification and collection of taxes is achieved, as well as the reduction of the so-called compliance burden of taxpayers.

Changes are foreseen in the context of tax audits, mainly to enhance transparency. According to them:

– The concepts of partial, full and remote control and the corresponding orders are defined and the scope of the control order is related to the control report.
-The maximum duration of the tax audit is defined
-The way of selecting cases to be audited is differentiated, based on the audit risk criteria applied by the Tax Administration, so that they are consistent with the modern needs of organizing audit procedures, as well as the possibilities of electronic/digital execution of them.

An important change is that the limitation period starts from the date of notification of the relevant act to the taxpayer and not from the date of issue of the relevant act as is currently the case.

With the promoted changes, the Ministry of Finance aims to update and simplify the tax provisions and at the same time the integration of digital technology in the communication of the tax authority with the taxpayer, in the cooperation of the AADE with other European tax authorities.

The aim is also to speed up processes and increase efficiency, but also to reduce the environmental footprint.