AADE

The AADE will soon release the new “weapon” against tax evasion, with which it will carry out sweeping cross-checks of tax information and data to identify undeclared income.

This is a new digital intersection unit that will leverage, with the use of artificial intelligence, all tax data pools, including digital tax systems, social media and the internet.

The goal of AADE is for the new unit to work in combination with all the tools of the tax administration, such as the electronic books (myDATA), the appodixi application, the interconnection of POS with cash registers and also the platforms of citizens’ complaints in order to strengthen the possibilities arrest of incomes that are not declared to the Tax Office or taxes that are not paid.

The intersections

Within the framework of the new unit, a series of intersection categories that will start in the next period are included, which are:

• The control of the data declared by property owners active in short-term leases. It will be investigated, among other things, if the owners of Airbnb and other categories of short-term rentals have a Property Registry Number in the transactions they carry out, if they have declared a business activity.
• The detection of suspicious transactions through the development of statistical methodology.
• The disclosure of undeclared real estate purchases and sales through available data.
• The utilization of the data resulting from the electronic books (myDATA) and concerning zero VAT declarations
• Cross-checking the declared gross revenues of the hotels with the data obtained from the Booking platform
• The search for taxpayer transaction details from foreign payment services.

The other “weapons” of AADE

The arsenal of AADE is going to be strengthened with other moves that are expected to be activated by the end of the year.

Among them the new informational system for property increase control, the input-output data utilization system, the new Property Ownership and Management Register. At the same time, the design also includes the operation of the center for special tax and customs control and investigations. The aim is to act as a coordination center for all specialized tax and customs control units.

AADE’s priorities are also the monitoring and collection of overdue debts to the public. The aim of the two new collection centers that have been activated in Athens and Thessaloniki is to search for debtors’ assets that have not been declared or undeclared bank accounts.

Their responsibilities include, among others:

• The activation of forced collection measures for debtors who do not settle their obligations with the Tax Office
• The categorization of debtors based on the amount of their debt
• The automatic monitoring of the progress of overdue debts that each debtor
• Identifying with the use of digital tools those debtors who frequently change their home or business address to lose track of them.

Source: RES-MPE

Fines of more than 1.34 million euros were imposed by AADE during the performance of more than 48,000 on-site checks “aimed at defending the public interest and securing public revenue”, as underlined in a relevant announcement.

Audits both in popular tourist destinations and in sectors of activity that present high rates of delinquency are carried out by the Independent Public Revenue Authority (AADE) after strengthening the auditing potential of the islands which, as it is claimed, the Authority achieved through the creation of a pool of experienced auditors.

Furthermore, care was taken so that the echelons of control alternated, moving both in mainland and insular Greece. In this way, the audits are mainly carried out by auditors from different territorial jurisdictions, states the AADE in its announcement.

The auditors have at their disposal tablets, with the ELEGCHOSlive system installed, through which they have direct access to the complete details of the audited, facilitating their audit work.

To support the control levels, a special operational team of AADE, making use of the Operations Room and having special software, scans data throughout the day and selects the areas of intensification of controls.

The results of the risk analysis are also enriched with the data resulting from the comparison of the data of the e-send system with those of the POS. More specifically, the receipts, which are transmitted through the e-send system, and the income from payments using electronic means are contrasted.

Fines of 1.34 million euros

Finally, audit tiers draw information for verification checks from two important tools that have been implemented to reduce tax evasion. This is the Citizen Complaints platform, where complaints or information are submitted, and the Appodixi application.

It is noteworthy that, to date, more than 48,000 on-site tax audits have been carried out. These checks revealed a hidden value of more than 20 million euros, and fines of more than 1.34 million euros were imposed.

In addition, in 628 cases the prescribed sanctions were imposed, and more specifically, the operation of 490 businesses was suspended, while in the remaining 138 cases a monetary penalty was imposed.

Source: OT.GR

Targeted audits by the Independent Inland Revenue Authority continue, based on cross-references and data, drawn from myDATA and processed by the special algorithm.

Based on these, the auditors compare this year’s turnovers with the tax behavior of past years and come up with… sea bass.

This also happened with a well-known fish restaurant in Vouliagmeni, which was asked to provide evidence of previous uses. At the end of the investigation, it was established that receipts or invoices worth 200,000 euros, plus VAT of 48,000 euros, were not issued, only for a specific control period. That is, the restaurant did the trick with the order slips, not issuing receipts for all the slips it had issued!

The company was fined 24,000 euros – 50%, that is, of the VAT, as provided for – and a tax audit has begun for all years, from 2018 until today.

The data that AADE receives from the delivery platforms, and crosses them with myDATA, showed that a steakhouse in Ampelokipi had not issued 26,000 receipts, worth 143,000 euros, plus VAT of 34,000 euros. The company was fined 17,000 euros, and a detailed tax audit has begun.

Italian restaurant in Paleo Faliro, at the end of each day, issuing the final receipts, canceled orders that had already been executed. Thus, it was found that from 2018 to 2022, he had not declared 311,000 euros, plus VAT of 57,000 euros. A fine of 28,500 euros was imposed here as well, while an in-depth audit of the company’s books is being carried out.