Greece extends the use of POS terminals to all economic activities

Greece, a country in the southernmost part of Europe and counting with a population of just above 10 million inhabitants has now decided to extend the use of POS terminals to all economic activities.

Greece is one of the countries with the oldest fiscalization in the world. After several decades of existence, it was determined that the system was largely neglected and outdated. Many taxpayers have significantly reduced the issuance of fiscal invoices, and some have completely stopped doing so.

Therefore, it was decided that as a first measure, the register of taxpayers who are required to issue fiscal invoices should be updated and that the update should continue weekly.

In September 2023, for the first time after a long time, the number of taxpayers and fiscal devices was updated by AADE (Authority for Public Revenue) to 1,032,000 (112 fiscal device models in usage) belonging to 585,000 businesses.

As a second measure, it was decided that, in addition to cash registers, taxpayers must also purchase POS terminals for card payments. For this service, 10 providers have been certified to support online payments by card. This decision was met with some resistance due to the price of the devices. However, the AADE did not want to deviate from its decision and hence postponed the execution date for one month to be used as the starting date for punishments. In this regard, fines will start at 200,000 euros and may reach as high as 300,000 euros, for companies that do not comply by February 29, 2024.

Finally, the AAED decided to extend the obligation to connect cash registers to POS terminals to new groups of taxpayers. 

This decision is a very ambitious one in its conception as it aims to cover the greatest number of economic activities, according to Greece’s Minister of Finance, Mr. Hatzidakis: “We cannot achieve (the arrest of tax evasion) with prayers”.

Among the economic sectors that would be affected by this decision, we can find, for instance:

• Taxis
• Cinemas
• Popular markets
• Grocery stores
• Insurance companies
• Stock companies
• Traders at fairs
• Concerts or events

Others are expected to join the list soon enough, such as tailors who did not even have a cash register before this decision was made.

Sources from the Ministry calculate that, with the expansion of the use of POS devices to the previously mentioned economic activities, they expect a sharp increase in the number of declared incomes. For example, it is estimated that, out of nearly 30.000 taxi operators in the country, only half of them declare profits. Furthermore, concerning self-employed people, data managed by the Ministry estimates that only a percentage of around 20% declare incomes above 10,900€, leading to the conclusion that just about 80% declare incomes below that figure. All of which does not seem to fit in with the numbers and data managed by the tax authorities.

That is why the Ministry is also devising a new plan for freelancers and self-employed professionals. This plan apparently consists of using an algorithm to determine the minimum amount these professionals should declare. The algorithm works by combining the professional’s income and expenses, together with the living expenses (electricity, mobile phone, gasoline, paid amounts by cards…), the type of professional activity, number of employees, business costs, etc. All this information and the calculations made by the algorithm will be used in case the professional declares a lower income than what would be expected.