One in three firms evades tax
Checks have revealed 32% of companies broke the law, with an average of 50 violations each
Almost one in three businesses audited by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) evaded paying taxes in the year to August 31.
According to the data of the tax administration, in the above period 50,000 checks were carried out both in holiday resort areas over the three summer months and in the whole country across the eight months, detecting violations in 16,000, or 32% of the businesses. At each of the 16,000 companies, an average of 50 violations of tax legislation were found.
These are checks that are carried out at the level of visits to businesses, with the aim of spotting – or not – violations, but also following cross-checks. Great emphasis was also placed on the data from the digital platforms, e-send and myDATA, combined with the transaction data from the POS.
According to information, at the top of the tax evasion list are restaurants, cafes, bars, clothing, footwear and food stores, and wineries, while violations were also observed in pharmacies and hotels.
The electronic tools available to the audit mechanism enable auditors to target businesses that appear to have transacted with a POS, but without issuing the relevant receipts. According to sources at the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, it is possible that the penal code of the tax office will be changed and the fines will become even more severe for those who do not issue and do not forward the receipts to AADE. It is noted that the data from the POS terminals are available to AADE no later than 24 hours after the transaction.
According to the same sources, this year the composition of the levels of auditors has also changed. It is possible that a team from Katerini in Central Macedonia will carry out an inspection in Varkiza, southern Attica, and a crew from Thessaloniki will be in Patra. These changes led to more cases of tax evasion being detected, as locality appeared to be causing problems.
The audits carried out identified companies with violations of not issuing and not transmitting tax data, as well as a number of cases where the payment had been made with a card, but the company had not transmitted the corresponding documents.
