Contributions of 2017 to rely on 2015 data

The government may use revenue data from two years back in 2017 to calculate the social security contributions for hundreds of thousands of workers.

While the Labor and Social Security Ministry has not yet put together the much-anticipated circular clarifying some of the aspects of the law introduced by Minister Giorgos Katrougalos, sources say that in the first sticky year of the new system’s application, contributions will be calculated according to the 2015 and 2016 revenues of workers.

The plan that is being considered by the ministry provides for contributions for the first half of next year to be calculated on the basis of workers’ 2015 earnings, while in the second half of 2017 data from this year will be used, when (and if) 2016 income declarations have been processed.

This calculation of contributions will have to apply for a significant amount of time, as the government has not yet created a real-time income monitoring mechanism. For 2017, a year of major changes in the system assessing the contributions of the self-employed professionals, the differences to emerge from the front payments and the final calculations will not be offset before the end of the year, creating significant bureaucratic problems.