Special topics

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Managing employees – Differences between their employment agreement and the one applicable to ordinary employees

in Labor & Employment, Special topics

Managing employees are individuals holding a management, trust or supervision position within a business entity. According to the legal theory and jurisprudence, managing employees are employees of a large business entity, who have been charged, due to their exceptional qualifications (higher education, high qualifications, special skills, specialization, experience) as well as to the employer’s special trust in them, with general management tasks regarding the whole entity or a significant department thereof and staff supervision tasks, in a way that they decisively influence the entity’s development and clearly distinguish from all other employees who carry out the normal current work. Such distinction...

26 Feb 2014

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Bank holidays under Greek law

in Labor & Employment, Special topics

1/1 New Year’s day 6/1 Epiphany 27/2 Ash Monday 25/3 25th of March (national holiday) 13/4 Good Friday 15/4 Easter 16/4 Easter Monday 1/5 1st of May -Labour day 4/6 Whit Monday 15/8 15th of August –Assumption of Mary (Christian holiday) 28/10 28th of October (national holiday) 25/12 Christmas 26/12 Day after Christmas-Boxing Day...

26 Feb 2014

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Legal issues of wage under Greek labor law

in Labor & Employment, Special topics

MInimum wage obligations under Greek labor law Under Greek law there are minimum wage requirements. There are various stages of control of the minimum wage. One is the “National General Collective Employment Agreement” which imposes a general “floor” applicable to all employees of all specializations. The current wage “floor” ranges from €510,95 [young employees under 25 years old with less than 3 years of completed employment time] to €761,90 [employees above 25 years old with more than 9 years of previous employment]. As a second stage (or “floor”), for most categories of work specialties (“classes”) there are “class agreements” that provide for higher...

26 Feb 2014

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Tax residency: coming or going; do you know where you are?

At the annual conference of the International Bar Association, that took place in Boston, U.S.A. in October 2013, the Taxes Committee of the IBA presented a panel discussion named “Tax residency: coming or going: do you know where you are?” on tax residency issues and how these are tackled in various jurisdictions. Theodoros Skouzos was the reporter of the session to the Taxes Committee, and this report was published on Vol. 20 No 1 of the Taxes newsletter issued by the Legal Practice Division of the IBA (February 2014). This presentation is a summary of what was discussed in the session. The panel1...

26 Feb 2014

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New Unified Real Estate Tax (U.R.E.T. – ΕΝ.Φ.Ι.Α., Law 4223/2013)

From 2014 and for each year subsequent thereto, a new tax is levied on real estate property located in Greece, namely the Unified Real Estate Tax (U.R.E.T.) - ΕΝ.Φ.Ι.Α., upon introduction whereof the current Real Estate Tax (RET - ΦΑΠ) is abolished. U.R.E.T. is equal to the total sum of a) the main tax on each real estate plus b) an additional tax on the total value of each taxable person’s rights on real estate property, on which U.R.E.T. is levied. For assessment purposes, the actual condition of each real estate as evidenced by the definitive entry in the Cadastral Office’s records;...

11 Feb 2014

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Special lump sum contribution of Article 18 of Law 3758/2009

Through its judgment 1685/2013 the Plenary Session of the Supreme Administrative Court (Conseil d’ Etat) ruled, that Article 18 of Law 3758/2009, by virtue of which a special lump sum contribution was imposed on income earned in 2007, is not contrary to the Greek Constitution. The date of hearing of this case was scheduled in the first instance on a “preferential” basis, i.e. soon, in the context of the institution of the “model process”, in view of the fact that many similar recourses for the same issue had already been filed, so that the date of hearing of other similar cases,...

09 Dec 2013

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Branch establishment of Credit Institutions in EU

in Company Law, Special topics

In articles 18 and 20 of Law 3601/2007 (regarding the Credit Institutions) it is provided that, under specific terms and conditions, a Financial Institution, domiciled in another member-state of the European Union, may perform activities of crediting in Greece. In principle, the definition of a “Financial Institution” is provided in article 2 of Law 3601/2007, according to which it is “an enterprise which is NOT a Credit Institution (Bank), with main activity the acquisition of holdings or the performance of one or more of the activities designated under b’–ib’ and ie’ of paragraph 1 of article 1 of Law 3601/2007, i.e...

03 Dec 2013

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Definition of a permanent establishment according to the new Greek Income Tax Code

By virtue of article 6 of the Greek Income Tax Code, as recently codified by law 4172/2013 (23.7.2013), a new definition of a permanent establishment is provided, as follows. Article 6 Permanent establishment: 1. “Permanent establishment” means the specific place of business through which the undertaking carries out business in whole or in part. 2. The term “permanent establishment” includes mostly: (a) an administration site, (b) a branch, (c) an office, (d) a plant, (e) a workshop, and (f) a mines, an oil or gas source, a quarry or any other place of natural resource mining. 3. The worksite or a construction or assembling project or supervision activities related thereto shall be considered...

23 Oct 2013

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Luxury taxes