By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

The grace period is over. In a few hours, the inspectors of the AADE will go out on the streets to identify those taxi drivers who do not have the necessary sticker on the rear right window that informs about the possibility of payment by POS.

After the one week “silent” extension given by the Ministry of Finance (on top of the previous extensions, of course), in Nikis they now consider that there is no excuse on the part of motorists, even in the most remote part of the Greek territory, not to have procured and affixed the sticker.

In case of non-compliance, the fine amounts to €1,000.

The sticker informs the customer in Greek and English that the driver is obliged to:

  • To issue a receipt at the end of the route
  • To accept payment by card
  • At the same time, the customer is NOT obliged to:
  • To pay in cash
  • To pay if he does not receive the legal receipt

The Ministry of Finance attaches great importance to the checks on this particular category of professionals as it is one of the few where – despite the general increase in card payments – the vast majority of payments based on the AADE data remains in cash amid reports and complaints about the absence of a POS or “breakdowns” in the machines.

The checks on taxi operators will be added to the checks already “unleashed” by AADE. In the target are among others:
Freelancers who have not yet activated the IRIS payment system to provide this option to their clients. The deadline has expired since October 1st and the fine for non-compliance is €1500
Catering businesses that have not yet replaced the old cash registers with the “new” smart ones that inform AADE even about pending orders. The fines are very heavy as issuing documents from an unauthorized tax mechanism “costs” 15% of the company’s revenue
Popular markets.
Businesses and professionals with negative or abnormal changes in gross profit, continuous losses and suspicious movements in their bank accounts. Audits in this category utilize indirect audit techniques in order to calculate the taxable amount

As surprising as it is, checks are also made for the interconnection of POS and cash registers by businesses. If we exclude approximately 2,000 cases which present objective technical difficulties of connection and which have been granted an extension after personalized information, it is estimated that approximately 15,000 businesses throughout the territory are still ignoring this obligation. In the event that they are caught in the tweezers of the auditors, they face:

  • €10,000 fine if they follow a simple accounting system,
  • A fine of €20,000 if they follow a duplicate accounting system.

In case of recurrence within 5 years, the fine is doubled and tripled for each subsequent same violation