Gov’t seeks early tax collection
The Finance Ministry will table clauses in Parliament next week that will allow income declarations for last year’s earnings to be submitted as early as later this month.
The ministry is planning to increase the number of installments for the payment of income tax, along the lines of the Single Property Tax (ENFIA), to six or eight, compared with three previously.
The ministry will first have to deal with a number of issues, such as deciding on the new deadlines for the payment of income tax and, mainly, finding a solution to the question of how to tax incomes from property rentals, as the budget provides for a 144.2-million-euro increase in state revenues from the latter. The bailout program dictates that tax rates should grow from 11 to 15 percent for annual rental revenues of up to 12,000 euros, and from 33 to 35 percent thereafter.
The Finance Ministry is examining the payment of income tax in up to eight installments, but the plan has not yet been submitted to the country’s creditors and it is not known whether it will obtain their approval.
The plan provides for a first payment deadline at the end of the month after the tax declaration is submitted. Therefore, if the form is submitted by end-February – if the online system is ready in time – the first installment will be due at end-March and the last at end-October, for a total of eight payments. The first installment has to be paid by end-May at the latest, in which case the total number of payments will be six.
After the clauses have cleared Parliament, the online Taxisnet system will start accepting income tax declarations. Officials at the General Secretariat of Public Revenues estimate that this will be possible in late February or early March.
The new form has very few changes compared to that used last year, given that there have been no changes to tax legislation regarding last year’s incomes.
