According to the Ministerial Decision of the Ministry of Finance 1214/30.09.2014 (Government's Gazette B' 2601/30.09.2014), the tax payers (natural and legal persons) conducting business trade, are now granted with the right to be included in the new VAT payment system, provided that their annual turnover does not exceed the amount of € 500.000,00 per financial year. More specifically:

• The new special VAT payment scheme grants the right to companies / entrepreneurs to pay the VAT of the invoices they issue to their customers, only upon the VAT collection. In other words, the VAT payment takes place as soon as the invoices are paid by the customer of each company, and not during the time of the invoice issuance.

Corresponding to the above, the same applies for the invoices which the company / entrepreneur receives from its suppliers - creditors. Only after the invoices have got paid, the tax payer shall be entitled to the relevant tax deduction.

• The companies to be included in the aforementioned special VAT payment scheme, shall be obliged to remain under this scheme for at least one year period.

• Those companies to be included in the new scheme, have the obligation to keep a special, separate file regarding their business transactions' data (collections - payments lists). There are analytical lists of customers' and suppliers' paid invoices to be prepared on monthly basis and then providing the tax administration authority with the relevant update information.

This special VAT scheme shall be implemented in all transactions, with the exception of those which are VAT exempt (intra-community deliveries and acquisitions of goods and services, imports of goods, retail sales, business acts for which the recipient of the goods or services becomes the tax payer, more specifically, those business acts for which the place of taxation is not in the country's domestic area).

• In the cases of advance payments, before the performance of the main transaction, the tax becomes a receivable claim when the advance payment gets collected (the issuance of a special tax document is foreseen, with the title "Special tax document for advance payment" for the scope of the special VAT scheme of Article 39b). In the cases of the refund of the advance payment, it is foreseen to issue this tax document with negative sign.

• Those companies wishing to join the new system need to make an electronic Declaration of Integration in the Special Tax Regulation Scheme through a specific form via the web application. Especially for the first application the declaration is accepted until 20.10.2014 and is valid from 01.10.2014 until the end of the current year.

• When the net sales of a financial year exceed the above mentioned limit, the company must electronically submit the Declaration of Deregistration from the  Special Tax Regulation Scheme also through a specific form via the web application until the end of the financial year in which the limit has been exceeded.

NOTE: This article does not cover advisory, but only informational purposes, and cannot serve, as a basis for further actions, on the part of   the reader. Reception of specialized advice is required.

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