Practice Areas

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Criminal sanctions against employers for violations of labor law

in Labor & Employment, Special topics

An employment contract is a bilateral contract, under which the parties undertake obligations on both sides. The employee assumes as his main obligation the provision of work, and the employer has as his main obligation to pay to the employee its compensation (salary). It is easy to understand that the non-payment of the employee's salary is the biggest violation to his legal rights and was the springboard for criminalization not only of this act of the employer but also of the general will for a more effective protection of the employee as the weakest part of employment relationship. Therefore, criminalizing non-fulfillment...

19 May 2022

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The principle of retroactive application of the lighter administrative sanction for breach of tax legislation under Greek law

(Legal Council of the state 2319/2021) The principle of retroactive application of the lighter administrative sanction (and more generally, the most favorable legal provision imposing administrative-sanctions) for violation of the tax legislation, constitutes a general principle of Greek tax law founded in the constitutional provisions of equality (art.4 par.1) and -in terms of pecuniary sanction- of the principle of proportionality in the restrictions of the right to property (art.25 par.1 q. d’). These constitutional principles bind the legislator when it comes to the regulation, by means of provisions of transitional law, of cases pending before the Administration or before administrative courts...

21 Apr 2022

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Tax treatment of benefits in kind

Granting of free shares (“Shares award plans”) [article 42A par. 3 of L.4172/2013, hereinafter as “ITC”] First, it should be noted that, according to article 14 par.1 of ITC, the benefit in kind in the form of granting of free shares that is obtained by an individual from a legal person/entity in the context of plans in which the achievement of specific objectives or the occurrence of a specific event is set as a condition for this granting, is exempted from the calculation of income from employment. Therefore, at the time of granting, the individual does not obtain income...

01 Apr 2022

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Joint venture (“koinopraxia”) according to Greek law

in Commercial Law, Special topics

According to Greek law, a joint venture is a joint partnership of several natural or legal persons who aim to achieve a certain common purpose (usually of a profitable nature). The persons participating in the joint venture (whether natural or legal) each retain their autonomy and legal personality. Furthermore, in the pursuit of the common purpose, the members of the joint venture, through the coordination of their actions, aim at achieving a better economic result. In many cases, the creation of a joint venture is dictated by the size of the project, particularly when it is too large and too...

15 Mar 2022

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Tax treatment of dividend in kind

The Greek Income Tax Code (ITC) does not explicitly refer to the case of distribution of dividends in kind or its taxation. The definition of “dividends”, as per article 36 of the Greek ITC includes any income deriving from shares, securities or other types of rights in the participation of profits that do not constitute claims from debts, as well as any income from other corporate rights such as parts, including pre-dividends and numerical reserves, participations in profits of personal companies, distributions of profits from any type of legal entity as well as any similar distributed amount. The distribution of dividends in...

04 Mar 2022

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Municipal Real Estate Tax

in Real Estate, Special topics

What is the Municipal Real Estate Tax ? The Municipal Real Estate Tax (in Greek “Telos Akinitis Periousias” or TAP) is a municipal obligation, a fixed small amount which is paid to the municipality that the real estate is located. Every real estate owner owes this amount to the Local Authority to which his/her real estate is located. However, in practice these fees are collected by the municipalities through the electricity bills, together with the Municipal Fees and the remaining Municipal Taxes. Real estate ownership is further subject to (national) real estate tax. How is the Municipal Real Estate Tax...

11 Feb 2022

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Special VAT exemption regime for small businesses

The Greek VAT legislation provides for a special VAT exemption regime for small businesses, which is regulated in article 39 of L. 2859/2000-Greek VAT Code, which has been amended since 1/1/2019 in order to improve and simplify the regime as well as fully harmonize it with the EU VAT law. Moreover, Circular E. 2012/2019 was issued communicating the new provisions and giving various clarifications on the regime in the context of the amended article 39. Herein below we provide the main points of the special VAT exemption regime for small businesses: The regime is optional; the new (amended) provisions aim at...

11 Feb 2022

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VAT treatment of educational services

For the assessment of the VAT treatment of educational services (such as teaching and training services), the first step is to determine the place of supply of those services for VAT purposes, based on their nature/classification, the VAT status/capacity of the recipient of the services as well as the way the services are provided (e.g. online). Following the determination of the place of supply, and should this be Greece, the next step would be to examine whether the services could benefit from the VAT exemption applicable to educational services. Should this be the case, even if the place of supply...

02 Feb 2022

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Procedure and documentation required for the commencement of a sole-trader business/freelancer activity