Exemptions to tax penalties
Workers, landlords, entrepreneurs and over-61s will not be fined for online payment shortfall
There will be no 22% penalty for a shortfall of online transactions last year by those aged over 61, for workers on furlough and for professionals who were forced to stop work due to the pandemic or were affected by it based on their activity code number (KAD), the Independent Authority for Public Revenue has decided.
For the rest of the taxpayers, the IAPR decision introduces discounts to the requirement for 30% of annual income to be spent in online transactions. Therefore, those who made electronic payments between 20% and 30% of their 2020 income will incur a penalty amounting to 11% of their shortfall and not 22%.
Consequently, a taxpayer who reached 25% of his income in online payments will pay 11% of the 5% shortfall in income terms. For an income of 20,000 euros in 2020, that penalty would now come to €110.
A mixed system will apply for taxpayers who spent even less than 20% of their income online. This means that there will be a 22% penalty for the shortfall up to 20% of the income and 11% for the distance between 20% and 30% of the income.
This system means that for a taxpayer with an annual income of €20,000 who only spent 15% of that in online payments, the penalty will come to €440.
The exemption to the penalty is granted to people who turned 61 by December 31, 2019, to those who had their labor contract suspended last year and those who were among the professional categories objectively affected by the lockdowns at any point in 2020, including entrepreneurs and employees alike.
The exemption announced will further apply to property owners who received reduced rent for the assets they leased last year, even for a single month, provided they have declared it to the IAPR.
The individuals who entered the Syn-Ergasia social security subsidy program at any time last year and those who had their seafarer contracts suspended due to the pandemic also qualify for the exemption.
