Securing the interests of the State in cases of tax evasion

Law 2523/1997, as amended by Law 3943/2011, including administrative and criminal sanctions relating to the tax legislation, sets out in Article 14 measures to secure the interests of the State in cases of tax evasion. In particular, par. 1 stipulates that where a competent tax authority identifies, on the basis of a special audit report, infringements of tax laws consisting in failure to pay to the State a total sum exceeding EUR one hundred and fifty thousand (€150,000.00) relating to VAT, as well as withholding and cascading taxes, duties and contributions, tax offices shall not issue certificates or attestations for executing...

Summary of changes on transfer pricing legislation by virtue of Law 4110/2013

By virtue of article 11 of law 4110/2013 the legal provisions relating to transfer pricing that were contained in article 39 & 39A of the Income Tax Code and the provisions of article 26 of Law 3728/2008 were merged. The latter provision is abolished and now the rules are all part of the Income Tax Code, and more specifically articles 39, 39A, 39B and 39C. The changes are (in summary) the following: - Introduction of the concept of thin capitalization in Greek Tax Law, as far as loans between affiliated entities are concerned. - It is now obligatory that companies maintain a file...

Preliminary confirmation of taxes at 50% and method of payment

Article 74(6) of the Income Tax Code stipulates that failing administrative resolution of the dispute and the lodging by the taxpayer of a timely appeal, the Head of the Tax Office shall immediately confirm 50% of the main disputed tax, additional tax and other taxes and duties confirmed with it. It is further established that the said amount shall be confirmed for payment upon lapse of the deadline for administrative settlement of the dispute and prior to referral of the appeal to the court, and is payable as a lump sum up until the last day of the month following confirmation....

Penalties in case of non-payment of confirmed debts

Article 25(1) of Law 1882/1990 as amended by law 3943/2011 provides the following: 1. A person who has failed to make payment at the tax or customs offices of any confirmed debts in favour of the State, public law legal entities, corporations and organisations of the general public sector for a period greater than four months shall be sentenced to imprisonment of: a) up to one year, where the total debt, however created, including all manner of interest or surcharges up to the date on which the debt table referred to in paragraph 5 was prepared, exceeds the amount of five thousand...

Option of settlement of debt to the State

Various provisions are established from time to time, which enable debtors to settle overdue debts to the State by repaying their debts in instalments, and be relieved from any surcharges due to overdue payment. The main law which sets out such facilities and is currently applied by tax offices is Law 2648/1998 (Articles 13 to 21 on repayment of overdue debts to the State in installments). Pursuant to the said provisions, debtors of overdue amounts payable to the State may be granted the option of repaying their debts in instalments past the statutory deadlines, provided that direct payment of the entire amount...

Taxpayer’s defense against tax assessment sheet

1. Appeal or Administrative resolution of dispute a. Appeal Under Article 66 of the Code of Administrative Procedure, an appeal regarding tax and customs disputes is generally exercised within thirty (30) days of its statutory serving to the person concerned or in any other case of him being shown to be fully aware of its content. b. Proposal to resolve an administrative dispute and / or lodge an appeal under Article 70 of the Income Tax Code. The debtor, against whom the sheet is issued, if he doubts its correctness, may also request, beyond the appeal against it,  the administrative resolution of the dispute...

Incentives for the realization of expenses for scientific and technological research

Α. DEDUCTION OF EXPENSES ACCORDING TO ARTICLE 31 OF THE INCOME TAX CODE The deduction of the above expenses on the gross earnings of companies is prescribed by the provision of par. 1 (ia), section one of article 31 of the Income Tax Code (Law 2238/1994). Prior to Law 4110/2013, the expenses for scientific and technological research of companies would be deducted at time they were incurred, except for expenses regarding capital goods, which are amortized in equal amounts within a three-year (3) period. The qualification criteria for the above expenses were determined by decision of the Minister of Industry, Energy and...

The tax framework for charitable gifts-donations in Greece

Introduction In the Greek tax law, as in other systems, there are special favorable provisions concerning the funding of charitable purposes systematically pursued by private or public institutions. In order to comprehend this favorable treatment, by way of introduction, it is necessary to mention the general provisions concerning gifts/ donations, when these are not destined to a charitable purpose -we need in other words to present the rule, in order to understand the exception. The taxation of inheritance and gifts/donations in Greece exists since the institution of the Greek State. Following several consecutive amendments, the main codification of this legislation was...

List of non co-operative countries according to article 51A of the Greek income tax code (updated on 20.1.2012)

1 Andorra 2 Anguilla 3 Antigua & Barbuda 4 Aruba 5 the Bahamas 6 Bahrain 7 Barbados 8 Bermuda 9 Belize 10 British Virgin Islands 11 Brunei 12 Cayman Islands 13 the Cook Islands 14 Costa Rica 15 Dominica 16 Gibraltar 17 Grenada 18 Guatemala 19 Guernsey 20 Isle of Man 21 Jersey 22 Lebanon 23 Liberia 24 Liechtenstein 25 Malaysia 26 Marshall Islands 27 Montserrat 28 Mauritius 29 Monaco 30 Nauru 31 Netherland Antilles 32 FYROM 33 Niue 34 Panama 35 Philippines 36 St. Lucia 37 St. Kitts and Nevis 38 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 39 Samoa 40 Seychelles 41 Singapore 42 Turks and Caicos 43 US Virgin Islands 44 Vanuatu 45 Uruguay 46 Hong-Kong ...

Thin capitalization rules in Greek tax law