The voluntary compliance of the debtors is prioritized by the AADE in the context of its supervision for the fight against money laundering.

Speaking about tax evasion offenses and the optimization of corporate KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures, in a discussion in the context of the 12th Thessaloniki Tax Forum, Ms. Head of Department D for Combating Money Laundering from Criminal Activities, Automatic Exchange of Information and Special Controls, of the Directorate of Audit Procedures of AADE, Sofia Karma referred to the role of AADE as defined in law 4557/18 regarding which persons it supervises and what are its responsibilities as a supervisory authority.

The Independent Public Revenue Authority is designated as the competent authority for the supervision of external tax accountants and legal entities providing accounting and tax services, as well as private auditors, real estate brokers and traders and auctioneers of high value goods.

“AADE is competent to see if the obliged persons apply the due diligence measures. Due diligence measures are the control that must be carried out on any natural or legal person when they are going to enter into a business relationship or even an occasional transaction with one of the obliged persons. Obligors supervised by the AADE must apply due diligence measures to a business transaction of more than 15,000 euros and when there is a cash transaction of more than 10,000 euros and in any case when there are reasonable suspicions that money laundering is taking place. There are three types of due diligence, standard, simplified and enhanced due diligence. Which type each obligated person will apply depends on the type of analysis they have done for their client from the beginning,” said Ms. Karma, adding that what AADE seeks from the obligated persons is “basically to know who the customer, that is why we have codified the law and made four categories of measures to be taken, starting with the simplest which is internal procedures and policies, the measures to be taken, the type of analysis to be applied and finally the suspicious transaction reporting process».

“Article 46 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law states that any supervisory authority, including AADE, may impose on persons supervised by it, disjunctive or cumulative, either corrective measures or sanctions. AADE currently comes to act proactively and prioritizes compliance over the imposition of sanctions. So far, no fine or sanction has been imposed by the AADE for due diligence measures and due diligence checks. AADE carries out due diligence checks. A control order is issued, it goes to the liable person, after he has previously been notified of a questionnaire detailing all the obligations deriving from the law and with which he must comply, in order to give him some time at his disposal to prepare . He then goes on site to his business to check if the obligations deriving from the law are actually being met. In the event that at this stage the auditor detects that e.g. the liable person does not have a written up-to-date laundering policy, does not have a policy on how reports will be made, does not keep a record of its customers together with the identification documents required by law, etc., at this stage it will issue a decision, a compliance report, where it will appear that he has not complied with some obligation set by law. However, at this stage no performance is required but a six-month window to comply is given“, explained.

On his part, Mr. Professor of the School of Law of AUTH, Theodoros Papakyriakou, referred to the particularities of tax evasion offences. “They are basic offenses today, but they have very clear specifics in relation to other money laundering activities,” he said.

“There are two categories of criminal behavior that separate the criminal behavior into someone who is an accomplice or knowingly involved in fraud, and according to this categorization there is also the imposition of the corresponding sanctions“, he said -among other things- while regarding the transaction and reporting supervision system he pointed out the need to have a study of its costs and effectiveness.

The Thessaloniki Tax Forum of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce is an institutional manifestation of tax interest in Northern Greece, seeking to provide a platform for constructive public dialogue on taxation and tax efficiency issues and policies.