By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

“There are enough things that we don’t like so there is room for small interventions.” This is what they were commenting on skai.gr finance ministry officials when asked about the changes – now in the pipeline – to the presumptive method of taxation.

To be clear, this method of taxation cannot and will not be fundamentally changed and not just for communication reasons.

However, small interventions will be made according to the Deputy Minister of Finance Christos Dimasthe government wants the changes to be voted on in Parliament in September, so that AADE has plenty of time to adapt the 2025 tax return submission platform (for 2024 incomes) to the new data.

In the office of his leadership SEC suggestions have arrived and will continue to arrive regarding the changes that each body believes should be made. In fact, in September, Mr. Dimas will also have an appointment with the Committee of Wise Men that has been set up for tax issues and he will also hear its own positions.

According to information from skai.gr, one of the issues that will be put on the table of changes is the disconnection of the minimum presumptive income from the increases that will be made in the basic salary, which will also automatically increase taxation.

This year, €10,920 was applied as a minimum income, based on the basic salary of 2023, and €780. Normally next year this should increase to 11,620 based on the new minimum of €830 and reach €13,500 by the end of the 4 years with a minimum wage of €950 which is the government’s promise.

A second concern has to do with how to meet the presumption where family income is not allowed to be used.

In a couple, for example, in which one spouse has an annual income of €25,000 and the other €5,000 (instead of the presumptive €10,920), the spouse with the higher income cannot cover the difference of the other. The Ministry of Internal Affairs here objects that something like this cannot apply in general because it would invalidate the whole philosophy of the law, it could for example be applied to couples freelancers.

Also, income from deposit interest, rent or capital gains on stocks and bonds may not be used. Only amounts from salaries, pensions or agricultural activities are accepted.

Other possible points of correction may be:

  • The years of professional activity (a criterion that has caused many reactions as, according to scientific bodies, the activity in Athens cannot, for example, yield the same income as the activity in a small provincial town)
  • The payroll cost (increases imputed income by 10%) which acts as a penalty for those who employ workers at a time when hiring incentives are still being given. An additional problem arises because if someone hires an employee for 5 months he will be taxed as if he had paid him for the whole year which is a clear distortion
  • The turnover of the business (increase 5% of the difference from the average). Here the agencies note huge extreme cases of very large increments of imputed income that essentially unfairly treat businesses that have declared very large amounts of turnover to avoid tax evasion.

A classic example are individual businesses of heating oil resellers, where due to special consumption taxes (80% of turnover) the turnover of these businesses is necessarily large, while the gross and net profit is very small.

  • Facilitation of the process of challenging the presumptions
  • Greater utilization of intersections through myDATA