By the law 4174 / 2013, new penalties are imposed, in some cases, smaller than those, which are currently in force (see below).

The new provisions provide exemption from surcharges (interest) and fines due to force majeure (force majeure are considered to be events that are unpredictable and cannot be prevented, as much diligence as the taxpayer may show, natural person or legal entity),after a request of the taxpayer has been submitted to the Head of the competent tax office. The prerequisite for the qualification of this favorable arrangement is that the taxpayer has paid the imposed taxes. It is at the discretion of the Tax Administration to recognize the force majeure.

No exemption is provided for penalties regarding misrepresentation and fraud offenses.

The questioning of fines has to be made with the appeal to a higher administrative authority.

In particular, the fines become imposed by tax category as follows: 

• VAT ( article 58 Α ) 
  • Breach of submitting an inaccurate VAT return

A fine equal to the 50% of the difference between the declared VAT and the one calculated by the tax authority will be imposed.

Note: For the failure to submit a VAT return, the following fines are imposed separately for breach of not submitting a return. 

• For the breach of failure to issue a tax document

A fine equal to 50% of the tax, which is attributable to the unissued tax document, will be imposed.

• For the breach of issuing an inaccurate tax document

A fine equal to the 50% of the difference of the corresponding VAT between the recorded value and the actual one will be imposed.

Note: The above mentioned fines, which will apply from now on, are the only ones from local partial tax audits, in case the failure of issuing or issuing of inaccurate tax documents is found.

• Breach related to the company's operation

In cases where a company operates without having submitted the registration of commencement of business declaration, a fine will be imposed equal to the 50% of the VAT which has not been attributed during the period of the non-legitimate operation, if income concealing is found.  

Note:

The above mentioned fine shall be imposed also to entrepreneurs who are exempted from VAT when they start a new activity which is subject to VAT, without declaring it into the registry of the relevant Tax office, unless the taxable transactions are recorded in the submitted VAT returns.

• Breach of not issuing a tax document

In case a person who is not liable to the submission of a VAT return issues a tax document, burdening its value with the relevant VAT, a fine will be imposed equal to 50% of the VAT which is mentioned on the tax document which shouldn’t have been issued.

If the unlawfully levied VAT has been attributed to the State, no fine will be imposed.

Note: To infringements of the VAT Law, the fines of Article 58 are not imposed also, since there is an imposition of the fines of Article 58 A.

• Withholding taxes (article 59)

The fines for the above mentioned breaches are diminishing and are imposed only after relevant tax audit.  

• Breach of delayed withholding tax return

Imposed are the fines which apply for procedural violations that means € 100,00, € 250,00 and € 500,00.

• Breach of delayed payment of withholding tax

A fine is imposed equal to the interest which occurs with a rate of 0,73% per month of delay of the withholding tax payment.

• Breach of non submitting of the withholding tax return for payment

In cases of non submission of the withholding tax return for payment, when obliged to submit / pay the withholding tax, a fine will be imposed equal to the 50% of the tax which should have been paid to the state.

• Breach of inaccurate withholding tax return

In the cases of inaccurate withholding tax return for payment, there is fine imposed equal to 50% on the difference of the tax which should have been paid to the State.

• Infringements of a person preventing, favoring and assisting with tax fraud (article 60).

In these cases, this person is imposed with a fine equal to the one which was imposed to the tax payer committing tax fraud.

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.

Our company does not hold any responsibility for any actions, taken by the readers, based on the present article.

According to the provisions of Law 4110 / 23.1.2013 (Government Gazette 17Α) and the Decision of the Minister of Finance 1180 / 2013, there is now the option granted for subjection into VAT of all business property leases, in contradiction to a former law provision, according to which the taxation option applied only for the commercial and goods centers, under specific conditions.

The subjection into VAT is carried out upon the choice of the property's lessor - exploitation operator, which is realized with the submission of the application for the taxation option to the competent tax authority. 

The taxation option can refer to the whole or a part of a property or a construction complex. The application explicitly defines the spaces for which the taxation option is to be followed. It should be pointed out that the taxation option also refers to lease relationships which had been concluded before 01.01.2013, provided that there shall be an application for the taxation option submitted, which shall apply since its submission. 

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According to the decision of the Ministry of Finance, No. POL 1167 / 29.07.2015 published in the Government's Gazette 1808 / 21.08.2015, the terms, the conditions and the VAT exemption procedure are defined for the purchase or import of goods meant for export and intra-community delivery and for the services which are directly related to those transactions.

• Beneficiaries

The taxable persons have the possibility to purchase from within the country or import goods with exemption from VAT if these goods are going to be subject of exports, according to Article 24, paragraph 1, cases a and b, and of intra-community deliveries, according to Article 28, paragraph 1, cases a and c of the VAT Code (Law 2859 / 2000) and to receive services which are directly linked to these activities.

• Requirements for the exemption approval

An exemption from VAT is immediately granted for purchases from within the country or the import of goods or the receipt of services, to the beneficiaries, natural or legal persons, of the above mentioned article, who, during the financial period in which they have supplied the application or in one of the previews three financial periods, have met the following requirements:

• Calculation of the exemption limit

The total value of transactions which may be done with exemption from tax in a period of 12 months cannot exceed the total value of exports and intra-community deliveries, which took place in the 12-month period that ends on the last day of the month preceding the application submitted by the taxable person for the approval of the exemption.

The granted limit is valid for the next twelve months of the approval.

If the exemption limit is reached before the end of the 12-month period for which it was granted, the taxable person is allowed to repeat the VAT exemption process if at least one month is over from the previous request.

• The approval process for the exemption limit

The taxable person who is requesting a VAT exemption for the purchase or the import of goods which are going to be subject of export or of intra-community delivery such as the receipt of services which are directly linked with these transactions, is obliged to submit to the director of the  tax office the following documents: 

a) Printed application,

b) Cumulative list of exports which are considered as finalized and have not been   

    cancelled during the determined period,

c) Cumulative list of intra-community deliveries  

The director of the tax office after carrying out an audit will directly issue a decision regarding the approval of the exemption limit or the rejection of the request.

• Calculation of VAT exemption limit for newly established or new beneficiaries or transformed beneficiaries (it concerns legal and natural persons)

For the implementation of the regulations of this decision, as new and newly established persons are the persons considered which have submitted an application in order to start their business activities and until their submission of the application for a VAT exemption, no 12 full calendar months have been completed.Also, as new are those persons considered which have submitted an application for the start of their business activities, but a 12-month period has not been completed from the performance of the first export or intra-community delivery until the last day of the month preceding the application month.

For the first calculation, according to the above, of the VAT exemption limit, the total value or exports and intra-community deliveries of the calendar quarter preceding the application is taken into consideration, which is completed on the last day of the month preceding the application month.

This limit is valid until its exhaustion, but not beyond the completion of the first calendar 12-month period from the date of approval of its grant.

For beneficiaries from a merger or a change of corporate form (transformation) which have not completed a full 12-month period running their business from their establishment date or their business registration at the tax office or their merger, the exemption limit is calculated on the basis of the total sum of exports and intra- community deliveries which have been done, increased by the value of these transactions that were made by each one of the beneficiaries who were converted or merged during the previous period, which is missing to complete a full 12-month period.

• Time and way of issuance of the Special Duplicate VAT Exemption Note.  

In order to receive the VAT exemption according to this decision the taxable person has to issue to his supplier or to the customs, according to the case, a special duplicate VAT exemption note, either manually or electronically.

The “Special Duplicate VAT Exemption Note” has to be issued in two duplicates from the buyer or the importer or the services recipient. The first copy is handed out to the supplier as long as he has consented to the transaction with the specific procedure in order for him to issue the invoice, or it is handed out to the customs office in order for the import to be completed without the transaction to be burdened with VAT.

The supplier, who is going to issue invoices for the mentioned transactions, is writing the numbers of the relevant exemption notes.  

There is no possibility of issuing an invoice without VAT which corresponds to a transaction without having previously issued a special duplicate exemption note.

• Revocation of the granted exemption limit

If, after the approval of the exemption limit, some of the above mentioned violations of paragraph 2 of Article 55 of Law 4174 / 2013, as it stands today, are found from the side of the beneficiaries, or if these persons have made use of the "Special Duplicate VAT Exemption Note" without prior authorization, or exceeding the awarded limit or exceeding of the 12-month period for which the limit was granted, the granted approval is withdrawn. The recall takes place by the decision of the director of the tax office in which the beneficiary belongs and it is valid until the completion of the 12-month period for which the limit is reached.

• Other regulations

The Special Duplicate VAT Exemption Note has to be kept by both counterparties for the time provided by law to safeguard the relevant invoice.

From the validation of this decision, that means from the 29th July 2015, the "Special Duplicate VAT Exemption Note" which is used by the companies, is still valid until the limit exhaustion or the expiration of the 12-month period for which the exemption limit was granted.

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.

Our company does not hold any responsibility for any actions, taken by the readers, based on the present article.

As employee within the reduced employment scheme, is the employee considered with a contract or an employment relation in which the working hours calculated on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis are less than the normal working hours (Article 2 of Law 3846 / 2010), in our country these are 8 hours per day / 40 hours per week (as determined by the collective employment agreement in the year 1984).

There are various forms of reduced employment such as:

a) part time work of a defined or undefined duration, of less working hours than the regular daily or weekly or bi-weekly or monthly working hours.

b) Employment on a rotation basis for fewer days a week, or less weeks a month, or less months a year and a combination of the aforementioned with full time daily working hours.

In the first case the contract of part time employment can be agreed during the employment process of the employee or during the employment relationship. In any case this needs to be done in a written form and in an individual contract.

In the second case, the employer can, instead of proceeding to dismissals of working employments, in case his activities will be reduced, unilaterally impose an employment rotation system in his company, the duration of which may not exceed nine months in the same calendar year.

In order for the employer to impose unilaterally an employment rotation system in his company, he has first to inform and consult with either the employers themselves or their legal representatives, when the number of the employees exceeds the 50 when there is a trade union or 20 people if there is no trade union,  Law.1767 / 1988 (Government Gazette 63 / A / 88).

These employees' representatives can be:  

a) the representatives of the trade union of the company,

b) the employees council,

c) in case there is no trade union or an employees' council, the information and the consultation will take place with the total number of the employees.

If the employer does not include in this measure the whole staff, but only a part of it, he has to inform the representatives of the employees about the number of employees concerned, and explain the reason for selecting the specific employees or departments of the company. 

The notification of the part-time and rotation employment should be submitted to the Labor Inspection Authority within 8 days from its preparation.

A termination of the contract due to non-acceptance of the employer's proposal for part-time work from the employee is invalid.

If the part time work has been defined on a daily schedule of less working hours than normal, the submission of the agreed work of the part time employees must be continuous and offered once a day.

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.

Our company does not hold any responsibility for any actions, taken by the readers, based on the present article.