“Cutters” come to social benefits for “poor” freelancers.

It is planned to prevent the granting of social benefits and assistance to self-employed people and self-employed persons who appear at the tax office with meager income for the status of financial personnel with the new regulations being promoted in the tax system for this particular category of taxpayers.

Nearly 7 in 10 self-employed people now declare their annual income to be less than €10,000, with these taxpayers receiving benefits and allowances unlike salaried workers who lose out on benefits because they cannot hide their true income.

Typical in the statement of the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Harris Theoharis, is that “the self-employed cannot have an income of one thousand euros or less than one thousand euros, two thousand or three thousand euros, and these taxpayers are the first to receive all the benefits.”

Ministry’s position

The economic staff points out that with the planned interventions in the field of taxation and new digital tools, the tax administration will have an insight into the real turnover and thus professionals will de facto be forced to declare higher annual income compared to today, leading to exceeding the income limits for granting benefits and aid. And the loss of state aid. It is noted that under the current system dozens of allowances are granted based on income level such as housing, heating allowance, student allowance, child allowance, PPC social tariff, etc.

But the beginning was with the heating allowance that will be granted this year. The Ministry of Finance set for the first time an additional standard for business turnover, with a limit of up to 80 thousand euros annually, especially for natural persons who engage in commercial activities. This measure is expected to exclude many professionals and self-employed people from benefits.

Regarding the proposed changes to the self-employed tax model, Harris Theocharis explained that they will apply to income in 2024, hastening to stress that no decision has been made yet as there are several scenarios on the table. Everything is inspected, evaluated and priced.

However, in the context of combating tax evasion in the field of liberal professions, the financial system will activate new measures in 2024, such as:

– Mandatory entry of electronic invoices so that transactions can be consulted and verified in real time.

– Universal e-book application (myDATA), which means that the declared income cannot be less than the output from electronic information (myDATA, cash register – POS), and as expense invoices, only what was electronically transferred to myDATA will be recognized for deduction from the total income. .

source: ot.gr