What changes January 1st
2024 is expected to be a pivotal year for freelancers, the self-employed and businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses. And this not only on the occasion of its provisions tax interventionwhich as of Thursday evening is a Law of the State, but primarily because of the significant changes that occur in the relations between the taxpayer and the tax control mechanism, with a series of obligations that citizens of this category will have in the future.
According to APE BEE, the aim of all these changes is none other than the limitation of tax evasion and the simultaneous increase of public revenues, which is estimated, by the Ministry of Finance, to amount to 3 billion euros per year on a permanent basis.
1. POS interface with cash registers
The most important intervention, which is scheduled to take place in 2024, is the interconnection of the POS with cash registers. An emblematic project that, after continuous extensions, is expected to take shape in a few months. Based on the plan currently in place by the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, its implementation will begin on March 1, 2024. Minister Kostis Hatzidakis has stated that the schedule will be observed with religious reverence and no further extension will be needed .
2. Closed and pre-filled VAT returns
Another structural change that is anything but minor concerns the VAT returns “locked” by the AADE, which businesses and self-employed persons will submit from January 1, 2024.
According to the plan, but also what the officials of AADE have stated, the revenues that will be submitted to the VAT declaration cannot be less than what is transmitted to the myDATA digital platform. Accordingly, the expenses submitted in the VAT return cannot be more than those transmitted to the myDATA digital platform.
Thus, the VAT returns will be automatically pre-filled by the AADE based on the data posted on the myDATA platform and consequently taxpayers will not be able to intervene to modify the data, as the pre-filled data of the statements will be locked.
According to the provisions of the decision signed by the governor of AADE Giorgos Pitsilis, from January 1, 2024, all the data of the accounting books, the tax electronic mechanisms, the tax records and the files that create will be transmitted to the myDATA digital platform. the tax electronic mechanisms.
3. It is now mandatory to write the QR code on the invoices
From 1/1/2024 all invoices issued by the program must be marked with a QR Code. This practically means that they must be transmitted automatically and not later in the day, otherwise the QR Code will not have the necessary data
4. The IRIS system is mandatory
Another innovative change is that from January 1, 2024, all freelancers who hold a business account will be required to accept payments through the Direct Payment System (IRIS).
It is worth noting that this particular obligation comes 11 months earlier, since the original planning placed it on December 1, 2024.
As stated in a previous announcement by the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, “freelancers and the self-employed are required to connect their business account to a direct payment system, as well as to accept direct payment from any natural person who requests it. Also, natural persons dealing with another natural person who provides services (freelancer or self-employed) are entitled to request that payment be made through a direct payment system.
It is worth noting that payments through the IRIS system are made directly from the consumer’s mobile phone without any commission for transactions up to 500 euros.
Consumers, once they have activated the IRIS service in mobile banking, will be able to make their payments within seconds by entering the VAT number or the professional’s mobile phone, data which for convenience can be provided in the form of a QR Code to be scanned.
The mention of the QR Code for IRIS payments will be printed on the body of the receipt issued so that its issuance precedes the payment.
The new provisions require payees, who accept payment cards, and payees who are required to accept payments through a direct payment service, to inform consumers about the acceptance of cards and means of payment of the payment card system, in a clear way that is not open to misinterpretation .
This information must be clearly displayed at the entrance of the store and at the checkout, as well as on the website through which they accept payments.
5. New self-employed taxation system
The new self-employed tax system takes the minimum wage as a benchmark, considering that a self-employed person cannot earn less than an employee. In other words, the amounts they will now have to declare as income cannot fall short of 10,920 euros per year.
Thus, it is predicted that taxation of the self-employed will increase from 0.8% of GDP today to 1.1% (the European average is 2.2%).
Based on what is provided in the bill, those self-employed who declare above the assumed income, will either have zero impact or will even see a reduction in their tax burdens due to the gradual abolition of the professional tax.
It should be noted that income from pensions, as well as from salaried work, but also from agricultural business activity, are included to cover the presumption. For example, if the presumption for a professional is determined at 12,000 euros and he has an income from wages of 7,000 euros, the presumption is reduced to 5,000 euros (12,000-5,000).
In addition, the pretension fee is reduced horizontally and for all professionals by 50% from 2024, regardless of whether they declare incomes higher than the minimum presumptive net income. The fee for each branch of natural persons is reduced by the same percentage (to 300 euros from the current 600 euros). The application fee will be abolished in two years.
