POMIDA CIRCULAR FOR RENT REDUCTION & COMPENSATION OF LANDLORDS!

POMIDA announces and clarifies the following regarding the questions that are constantly being asked.

A. RENT REDUCTION JANUARY 2021

Continuous reports in the press and media about non-payment of rents in the month of January compel us to emphasize, as has announced, and soon to be ratified by law,that the rents of January 2021 are distinguished in terms of their reduction in three categories:

100% DISCOUNT: Only on professional rents of certain categories of businesses that remained closed by government order during the holiday period of December 2020 until January 11, 2021. All retail businesses are included, regardless of whether they operate online or telephone commerce with home delivery, catering businesses, regardless of whether they operate with product distribution and/or package delivery from the store, hairdressers and beauty salons, businesses in the fields of culture and sports, tourism businesses, such as hotels, accommodation and travel agencies, and transport services. The reduction in this category in February has been announced to be 80% and therefore tenants who fall into this category will have to pay the owners 20% of the rent.

40% REDUCTION: In the professional rents of the businesses that have been characterized as “affected” and the rents of the main (and student) residence of the employees whose employment contract is suspended and therefore the lessees must pay 60%.

ZERO REDUCTION: In the rents of businesses that continue their operations without interruption such as supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. .In residential rentals for the rest of the private sector workers, public servants, entrepreneurs, traders, freelancers, income earners and any other category of main residence tenants. In the leases of a secondary residence, country house, temporary residence and leases for any other type of use except the main residence of an employee whose employment contract has been suspended due to the forced stoppage of the operation of the company in which he works.

B. COMPENSATION OF LANDLORDS FOR REDUCTIONS OF RENTS. The initial rate of 30% of the reduction, offset against current tax liabilities, increased to a payment of 50%, which had principle claimed by POMIDA and will even reach up to 80% for the months of January and February 2021 in businesses that remained closed by government order. For those taxpayers who are entitled to set-off with their tax obligations, but have already fully paid Income Tax and ENFIA, the set-off will be made with the obligations of the following financial year.

Legal entities that lease properties to the above businesses for January 2021 will be compensated with 60% and in February 2021 with 40% of the monthly rent.

The following table shows the percentages of the compensation and the stages of the procedure.    

C. THE NECESSARY INTERVENTIONS AND CHANGES IN THE DECLARATION PROCESS & COMPENSATION

The main problem for landlords remains the time that elapses until the payment of their legal compensation, which remains long despite continuous efforts of the AADE staff. The infinite number of cases and the need to fully control the process of clearing the declarations and paying to the beneficiary real estate lessors the amount each of them is entitled to from the rent reductions which will apparently continue, makes the following interventions in the way of operation absolutely urgent and necessary AADE’s rent and COVID declaration platform, in order to reduce the time between the submission of the COVID declaration and the payment of the compensation to which landlords are entitled:

• Posting by AADE of the detailed reduction accounts and the offsets recognized by each taxpayer.
• New deadline for declaration of all undeclared reductions due to late declaration by the lessee to the lessor.
• New deadline for correcting declarations that have been rejected for any reason.
• New deadline for correcting erroneous declarations based on AADE messages.
• New procedure and deadline for correcting payroll & amendments.
• Automatic sorting of lease and COVID declarations in the AADE application based on electricity supply number or tenant name.
• MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: Instant change in the form for submitting the COVID declarationswith automatic Online recognition and confirmation, during the typing process, of the lessee as the beneficiary of the reduction (and therefore the lessor as the beneficiary of the compensation), and automatic clearing of the COVID declaration without acceptance by the tenant is required. With this change the landlord will automatically know if the tenant’s declaration of the right to reduce the rent is true, and therefore if he is entitled to compensation from the State. The said necessary regulation and adaptation of the form will restore the transparency and reliability of the system, will automatically eliminate the false declarations of tenants regarding their alleged right to reduce the rent, will make possible the immediate and without problems and conflicts the liquidation of the COVID declarations, the immediate notification of the lessor about the amount of compensation to which he is entitled, and the possibility of immediate or even short payment.