The hourglass for submitting the tax returns of 2024i.e. for the incomes acquired in 2023, begins to empty and approximately 1.9 million taxpayers have not yet submitted their declaration.

The Ministry of National Economy and Finance declare that there is no reason to grant an extension of the relevant deadline, which as is known expires on July 26at a time when more and more market players are asking for an extension, in order to enable taxpayers and entrepreneurs to be consistent with their obligations.

As far as the progress of the tax returns so far, what emerges is that almost seven in ten (68.57%) will pay no additional tax and this because either their settlement statement is zero (47.65%), or credit (20.92%), that is, they will receive a tax refund.

Let’s look in detail at the data obtained based on the update from AADE and the latest update on July 12.

  • Tax returns: 4,692,122 returns have been submitted, which corresponds to 71% of what was expected, after 6,616,512 tax returns were submitted last year.
  • Debit notes: 31.43% of all declarations are debit notes (1,474,733 notes) and are required to pay an additional tax of 2.1 billion euros. The average amount of payment amounts to 1,426 euros, due to the increase in declared incomes, but also the application of the measure of presumptive determination of incomes for freelancers.
  • Credit clearances: 20.92% of clearances have a tax refund. In other words, 981,591 taxpayers either received or will receive immediate money back, unless they have other outstanding debts to the Tax Office, in which case an offset will be made. The total amount of the refund amounts to 298,947,829 euros and the average amount is 305 euros.
  • Zero clearances: 47.65% of clearances are zero, with their number amounting to 2,235,796.

Submitting amending statements

The AADE invites by email a number of taxpayers to proceed with the submission of amending declarations, as while they filed their tax declaration on the platform, new data from employers or insurance funds became available to the Authority. The message that has been sent to thousands of pensioners by AADE states that EFKA has sent new data for earnings and therefore they are obliged to proceed with the submission of amending statements until July 26, 2024 without penalty.

They are asking for an extension

At the same time, more and more market players as well as accountants are asking for the extension of the deadline for submitting the declarations, citing the inability to be consistent due to system malfunction problems. Specifically, among them, the Greek Chamber of Commerce has already requested an extension of tax returns until the end of September, while the Panhellenic Federation of Tax Technicians has also requested a two-month extension, arguing that most errors in the initial platform were corrected in May and June.

And the Panhellenic Federation of Tax Professionals (POFEE), is moving in the same direction, noting that in a few days a large volume of declarations must be submitted plus any amendments that need to be made for those that were submitted automatically, after the existence of deficiencies and inaccurate data.

For his part, however, the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, the press representative, Homeros Tsapalos, states “there is no reason for any extension”.

There is almost zero questioning of the presumption

Finally, it should be noted that at the same time, only 83 or 0.05% of all those who are taxed based on the presumptive method of determining the incomes of the free, have so far submitted an application to challenge the tax by accepting the tax audit. The AADE has received an additional 106 requests to dispute the tax for objective reasons, which are also provided for in the law, such as for example military service, imprisonment, hospitalization in a hospital or clinic, inability to exercise an activity due to pregnancy, etc.