Exhales on Monday, September 2, the deadline available to freelancers and the self-employed to link their professional account to the direct payment system (in Greece, the IRIS system is currently operating).

The Ministry of Finance in its announcement clarifies that through this system they are allowed to accept direct payments from their customers and benefit from the significant advantages offered by the service such as significantly reduced or even no cost of commissions as well as speed in the processing of transactions.

It is noted that AADE proceeded today to re-send a message to freelancers and self-employed persons in view of the expiration of the relevant deadline in order to remind them of the obligation to complete the procedure.

To date, there are 400,000 freelancers and self-employed people registered with the service, of which 240,000 have activated the instant payment system this year. In fact, in recent weeks, the rate of registration to the service is five times higher than in the previous period.

A total of 12 banks now provide the service: Alpha Bank, National Bank, Eurobank, Piraeus Bank, Cooperative Bank of Epirus, Viva.com, Optima Bank, Attica Bank, Pankritia Bank, Cooperative Bank of Thessaly, Cooperative Bank of Karditsa and Cooperative Bank of Chania.

Significant benefits for everyone

Signing up to this service creates a number of benefits for all involved, namely:

For the professional: Easy collection of payments without the need for the presence of the customer and without additional equipment (POS), immediate availability of receipts in the business account 24 hours a day and immediate notification by SMS or push.

Professionals receive the money instantly (in 2 seconds) even if the bank they work with is different from the client’s bank.

Transactions are carried out through the secure environment of the banks’ mobile banking and with the use of biometric data.

The cost for using the service is extremely low or not at all and ranges from 0% to 0.50% of the transaction amount.

That is, it is significantly lower if the same transaction was carried out through the use of POS.

For the citizen: Create an alternative payment method. Absolutely free for each of their transactions (whether between citizens or for payments to professionals), easy, fast and secure payment, without IBAN, without card and without cash, just by using the mobile phone.
For the state:Transparency and information on the payments of the debtors, reduction of tax evasion and increase of tax revenues.
For banks: Cost reduction by reducing the use of cash, new digital solutions for their customers

Quick and easy registration process

The activation of the service is done quickly and easily, without the obligation to visit any bank or service, through the web banking or mobile banking of the cooperating banks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In case you do not know which banks offer the IRIS payments service for professionals, visit the official website of DIAS S.A., select the bank you work with in the path Services > For Businesses > IRIS direct payments to professionals / sole proprietorships and find out depending on the bank for how to activate.

Indicative example of registration:

Through the Internet Banking of his bank, the professional in a few steps:

  1. Selects the IRIS Payments service from the Services section in Internet Banking.
  2. It declares the identifier to its customers (TIN).
  3. Connects the business account to which the money received through IRIS Payments will be credited.

Upon completing his registration with the service, the company’s unique QR code is generated, which he can share with his customers to scan and make payments to his business.

It is recalled that:

  • The IBAN that professionals and self-employed persons will choose during their registration must have been declared in the Register of Professional Accounts of AADE, in the digital portal myAADE (myaade.gov.gr) in the path Applications > Tax Services > Professional Account.
  • The limit of 500 euros per day for transactions through IRIS is applied per client and not to the total amount of payments that the professional can receive during the 24-hour period. For example, a professional can receive in one day 4 payments of 500 euros each (a total of 2,000 euros).
  • A fine of 1,500 euros is foreseen for those liable who do not register with IRIS by the deadline.