Spreading the taxation load

The Finance Ministry has decided to spread the annual burden for taxpayers by increasing the monthly tranches regarding income tax and the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) as of 2022, which means tax declarations will have to be submitted earlier than ever next year.

The ministry’s objective is to have income tax statements uploaded by end-April or May, when the first monthly tranches will be due. Therefore income tax will be payable in up to 10 installments, spread across the year, just as the ministry has also decided to do with ENFIA from next year.

The idea is to have taxpayers pay smaller amounts each month in more tranches and not leave taxes unpaid, while the huge pool of unpaid arrears to the state exceeds 109 billion euros.

That process also renders obsolete the tax administration’s standard payment program of 12 tranches with interest, and the loading of debts on credit cards, which also incurs interest.

The ministry’s planning provides for taxpayers with income tax dues to receive a payment slip providing for up to 10 or even 11 monthly installments: They will start from late April or May and conclude by end-February of the following year. Ministry sources say this plan requires the opening of the Taxisnet platform by February at the latest, and for all the necessary details (from employers, banks etc) on taxpayers to have arrived by end-January at the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, which will attempt to have pre-filled almost all entries in the tax form.

After processing the income tax declarations, the tax administration will begin processing the ENFIA dues of 2022, so that the first payment notices are issued in mid-May and the first installment will be due by end-May. The anticipated amount of €2.2 billion that the state collects every year will be spread across 10 tranches of €220 million of revenues per month.

To facilitate the tax declaration submission process, the IAPR is also considering the automatic pre-filling of rental revenues on the E1 and E2 forms: The rental payment amounts declared on the property leasing forms will be automatically transferred to tax declaration forms.