Demands for tax filing date to be pushed back to mid-September

With 24 days left until the tax return filing deadline, more than 2.7 million residents have not filed their returns and accountants are pressing the government for an extension of the date to at least mid-September.

Not all of the taxpayers are simply shirking their duty. Property owners, for example, cannot file a tax return while government subsidies over lost rents during the pandemic are still pending. Others have had their tax statements returned over mistakes or omissions in their filing and are asked to submit revised statements.

There have also been significant delays in the electronic filing of earnings statements by employers, which prevents the cross-checking of data.

The Attica tax experts’ association said that the tax filing platform had opened on May 27 but that delays by the state rendered the online platform practically useless until July 7.

The state has also failed to file the circulars clearly defining who was eligible for the 37 “special purpose” cases of state aid during the pandemic.

Data released on Monday by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue showed that 59% of eligible individuals and legal entities had filed tax statements. Of those, 68.8% entail tax rebates or no extra taxes, with this number likely to increase once all statements are filed.