The Greek Tax Authority is implementing a massive cross-referencing scheme following the completion of tax return submissions, deploying all modern digital “weapons” in the battle against tax evasion, including automated algorithms, big data, artificial intelligence, and interoperability with banks, platforms, and foreign entities.
The goal is to identify undeclared income and assets for which corresponding taxes have not been paid, with controls covering every suspicious transaction in bank accounts and money transfers. First in line will be short-term rentals, undeclared rental income, large discrepancies between income and expenses, hotel businesses with mismatched bookings and declarations, zero VAT declarations despite active business activity, and subsidies from the problematic agricultural payment agency.
Who is in the crosshairs of the tax authority for detecting hidden income
Specifically, based on the planning, targets include:
● Taxpayers who declare incomes in the range of €10,000-20,000 but whose living expenses are significantly higher through cross-referencing data for accounts and movable and immovable assets.
● Owners of short-term rental properties like Airbnb to determine if they have a Property Registry Number and if the accommodations are registered in the relevant registry. In cases where violations are found, such as listings without proper registration or operating permits, the data will be forwarded to tax offices for fines and taxes. Cross-referencing will be done with data from digital platforms Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO based on cooperation protocols signed by the tax authority.
● Hotel businesses with mismatched bookings and declarations to verify the honesty of declarations and payment of corresponding taxes.
● Individuals who earn income from abroad through cross-referencing at least 10% of incoming information for interest and income from foreign authorities, through the International Administrative Cooperation framework.
● Employers with different declarations to tax offices and social security
● Businesses that submitted zero VAT declarations but had active economic activity.
● Freelancers and self-employed individuals who in the last two years declared incomes below presumptive taxation thresholds. The target focuses first on those who challenged the minimum income for 2024, while from autumn the controls extend to those who submit corresponding requests for 2025. Last year only 1,037 professionals chose to challenge the new system and enter a regular audit procedure to prove they were being wronged.
● Taxpayers with backdated amounts from salaries or pensions. Under scrutiny are backdated salary and pension payments that were either not declared or declared with discrepancies. Although the relevant codes in tax forms are pre-filled, thousands of taxpayers – mainly retirees – face additional taxes for amounts they either ignored or were not timely informed to declare.
Simultaneously, the tax authority plans to issue 10,000 administrative tax assessment acts, following cross-referencing, for cases of taxpayers who did not submit or submitted incomplete income tax returns. Taxes will be calculated by estimation and will be followed by reports for issuing estimated tax acts.
