Specific time frame for audits on taxpayers
The audit mechanism must complete each audit it undertakes within two years, according to new rules on the tax administration.
With this move, businesses will stop being hostage to the taxman, while the cases forgotten in drawers will necessarily come out and must be completed quickly.
According to the draft law which amends the Tax Procedures Code after 11 years, auditors will have one year to complete the audit from the date of issue of the audit sheet. Once it has started, an extension of six months can be granted, and, in exceptional cases, under the same condition – i.e. that the audit has started – a further extension of six months will be given.
This change aims, on the one hand, to prevent the audit mechanism from being blocked with audits that are impossible to complete and, on the other, to ensure that businesses are not trapped by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) with cases festering in the auditors' drawers.
As stated by the deputy minister of national economy and finance, Harry Theoharis, “we set a specific time frame for the tax audits, so that there are no time-consuming pending cases that burden all those involved. More generally, the draft law on the Tax Procedure Code constitutes a qualitative leap toward the digitization of the state and the substantial suppression of bureaucracy.”
At the same time, it provides for the establishment of an interim tax determination in cases where a combination of criteria is present, from which there is a risk of tax evasion (e.g. seasonal newly established businesses or when there are specific indications that the taxpayer intends to leave the country).
Another change that is in the taxpayers' favor is that the deadline for providing the information which AADE requests from taxpayers will be increased from five to 10 days.
There will also be a faster issuance of tax information. Interoperability among state bodies is adopted so that the AADE is informed about the existence or not of overdue debts of the citizen, accordingly granting or not the tax awareness certificate.
There may also be changes to the penal code, something that has not yet been decided, with the government still waiting for the comments of the consultation process.