The postponement of the deadline for submitting tax returns until the end of September 2024 is requested by the president of the Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, Konstantinos Kollias, in a letter to the Ministry of Finance and the AADE.

The OIE argues in its letter that the July 26 deadline is not possible because:

– In 17 days it is impossible to submit the rest of the declarations, since, according to the latest statistics, 4,510,265 declarations have been submitted from 6,616,512 natural persons (2023 data) and from 1,589,809 declarations of financial information from business activity (2023 data) 724,398 declarations (E3) have been submitted to date.

– The platform for submitting tax returns for natural persons was opened on April 26, 2024 with deficiencies and malfunctions and in a time of about two months before June 30, 2024, i.e. the statutory deadline for submitting tax returns.

With the new system of automatic submission of pre-completed employee-pensioner declarations, most taxpayers of this category will be led to submit amending declarations, due to incorrect data or non-posting by public organizations, of retroactive or financial support certificates.

– Employees in accounting offices are entitled, by law, to leave during the summer. It is reminded that the summer leave for the industry is a right that the State must respect.

Added to all of the above is the submission of VAT for the second quarter of 2024.

It is noted that today, there is an inability to enter the declaration submission application, due to system load. This problem will intensify as we approach 7-26-2024.

The president of the OEE also recalls the body’s position, from September 2021, for the enactment of a strict timetable, with a clear definition of the start-end date, within which the tax returns will be submitted, with the commitment, however, that the required instructions, there will be no backlogs and the online platform will be fully functional without technical problems. The legislation must provide for attribution of responsibilities for errors or delays, which are due to each competent body either from the public or from the private sector.

“We do not consider it fair to impose fines on taxpayers for omissions and late submissions, for which they are not directly responsible. The proposed period for the submission of income tax returns is the four months, from March 1 to June 30 of each year, as was the case in the past” as stated.

The OEE concludes, pointing out that “the accountants-tax experts do not ask for extensions, but the increased obligations assigned to them by the State require the political leadership of the Ministry of Finance to satisfy their request and respect the professional sector that supported and continues to responsibly and conscientiously supports the economic measures of the State”.