RENT REDUCTION – THE DECISION ON THE COMPENSATION PROCEDURE FOR LANDLORDS (JAN-FEB)!

The decision regulates the payment of compensation due to the above rent reduction: a) for natural persons – lessors of an amount equal to eighty percent (80%)of the total rent of each month and b) for the legal entities and legal entities – lessors, including the legal entities of public law of subpar. 3 of par. 1 of article 68 of Law 4235/2014 (A’ 32), as well as private non-profit legal entities, an amount equal to sixty percent (60%) of of each month’s total rent, to their bank account that has been notified on the website www.aade.gr of the Independent Public Revenue Authority (A.A.D.E.).

The decision states that the beneficiaries of compensation are and the sublessors, natural or legal persons and legal entities, including the public law legal persons of subpar. 3 of paragraph 1 of article 68 of Law 4235/2014 (A’ 32), as well as private non-profit legal entities that, based on the right to sublease, have entered into a sublease contract and do not collect sublease for the months of January and February 2021 by the contracting parties, sublessors, as required by law in the context of dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The question therefore remains unanswered so far addressed to the AADE by POMIDA asking to clarify whether the sublessors have the right to proceed with arbitrary, unilateral and illegal rent reductions of several months at the expense of the owners of these rental properties when they do not they use them themselves but sublease them to third parties.  

This is why the ND MPs Vassilis Spanakis and Christoforos Boutsikakis submitted a Question to the Parliament, asking the relevant ministers to correct the matter retroactively.

The decision provides in detail the following:

Article 1

Purpose

1. With this decision it is determined, for the persons of par. 42 of article 72 of Law 4172/2013 (KFE), who do not collect rent during the months of January and February 2021, in accordance with provisions in the context of dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the procedure and conditions for payment: a) for natural persons an amount equal to eighty percent (80%)of the total rent of each month and b) for the legal entities and legal entities, including the legal entities of public law of subpar. 3 of par. 1 of article 68 of Law 4235/2014 (A’ 32), as well as private non-profit legal entities, an amount equal to sixty percent (60%)of of the total rent of each month, to their bank account which has been notified on the website www.aade.gr of the Independent Public Revenue Authority (A.A.D.E.), in accordance with the provisions of the third and fourth paragraphs, respectively, of the . a’ of paragraph 2 of article 13 of Law 4690/2020, as applicable. other reservation in favor of the State, including the special solidarity levy of Article 43A of Law 4172/2013 as the case may be, is inalienable and non-seizable in the hands of the State or third parties, notwithstanding any other general or special provision to the contrary, it is not bound and not offset with certified debts to the State, public law legal entities, Local Government Organizations, the latter’s legal entities, insurance funds and credit institutions, not applying paragraph 1 of article 47 of Law 4172/2013 in case of distribution or capitalization of the amount of par. 1 hereof in the case of a beneficiary legal person or legal entity.

Article 2

Beneficiaries

1. Lessors, natural or legal persons and legal entities, including of legal entities under public law of subpar. 3 of par. 1 of article 68 of Law 4235/2014 (A’ 32), as well as private non-profit legal entities that have entered into a lease agreement for real estate over which they have a real right of full ownership or usufruct and do not collect rent for the months of January and February 2021 from the contracting parties, lessees, as required by law in the context of dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
2. The sublessors, natural or legal persons and legal entities entities, including the public law legal entities of subpar. 3 of paragraph 1 of article 68 of Law 4235/2014 (A’ 32), as well as private non-profit legal entities that, based on the right to sublease, have entered into a sublease contract and do not collect sublease for the months of January and February 2021 by the contracting parties, sublessees, as required by law in the context of dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
3. The heirs of deceased lessors and sublessees are required to submit to D.O .Y. where the heir belongs, the supporting documents proving that they have become heirs of the deceased in order to update the information of the Tax Register (refer to POL.1006/31-12-2013, as amended and in force).
4. Businesses that operate discount stores (outlets), shopping centers or discount villages. The more specific procedure as well as the conditions for payment of the amount of compensation for the beneficiaries in question will be determined by a more recent decision following the recommendation of the Governor of A.A.D.E.

Article 3

Procedure for submitting a “Covid Declaration”

1. The lessor/sublessor collection beneficiary, in order to benefit from the favorable arrangements provided for by these provisions, submits a declaration on the change of rent (“Covid Declaration”), in accordance with defined in the decision of the Governor of A.A.D.E. under items POL 1162/2018, as applicable, after its amendment with items A.1139/2020 (B’ 2269), A.1243/2020 (B ‘ 4914), and A.1253/2020 (B’ 5180) decisions of the Governor of A.A.D.E. has not submitted the “Covid Declaration” by the end of the relevant deadline, the beneficiaries of the amount corresponding to eighty percent (80%) of the total rent for each month are his heirs, who submit to the D.O.Y. of the deceased the aforementioned statement, pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 6 of article 5 of the decision of the Governor of A.A.D.E under items A.1139/2020, within two (2) months from the expiration of the case of the deadline for the submission of the inheritance tax declaration defined in articles 62, 63 and 64 of Law 2961/2000.
2. In the event that the heir dies after submitting the “Covid Declaration” and has not notified bank account for payments to AADE, according to POL.1140/2006, as amended and valid at the time:

3a. As long as there is a bank account with the sole beneficiary being the heir, any of the heirs shall notify the D.O.Y. of the inheritor this bank account by presenting a certificate from the credit institution in which this account is kept.

3b. If there is no bank account with the sole beneficiary of the heir, then his heirs must notify the D.O.Y. of the deceased, providing the appropriate supporting documents, the percentages of their participation in the inherited property and the number and year of submission of the “Covid Declaration”. In this case, the amount corresponding to eighty percent (80%) of the total rent of each month is paid according to the percentage corresponding to each of them, to the bank accounts of the heirs that have been declared in the TAXISnet Personalized Information of A.A. D.E. The present application is submitted within two (2) months from the expiry of the deadline for submitting the inheritance tax declaration defined in articles 62, 63 and 64 of Law 2961/2000.

Article 4

Procedure for granting and paying the amount to the beneficiaries

1. AADE, after the expiry of the deadline for submitting the “Covid Declaration” and within thirty (30) days, processes the “Covid Declarations” and the notifications of article 3 hereof, based on the data available to it, approves them or sends a message for their correction or rejects them. The lessor, the sublessor or their heirs are informed by AADE with a message to the email address notified to Taxinet about the rejection of the “Covid Declaration” or about any actions they must take for its correction.
2. The payment of the amount to the beneficiaries is carried out in two cycles. The first cycle begins fifteen days from the end of the deadline for submitting the “Covid Declaration”, as defined by the POL.1162/2018 decision of the Governor of AADE (Β’ 3579) as valid and is completed within thirty (30) days from expiration of the above deadline. The start date of the 2nd cycle will be the next to the end date of the first cycle. The payment of the amounts to the beneficiaries is carried out gradually, in accordance with the provisions of this decision.
3. The amount corresponding to eighty percent (80%) or sixty percent (60%), as the case may be , of the total rent of each month, is paid to the beneficiary’s bank account that has been declared in the Personalized Information of AADE’s TAXISnet.
4. AADE before the payment creates:

a) Detailed statement of beneficiaries in electronic format, which includes their full details (first name, last name, last name, A.F.M.) the bank account number in IBAN format, the payment service provider where the account is held (optional information) and the amount entitled. The electronic form of this statement can be processed by the company “Interbank Systems S.A.” (DIAS S.A.) to which it is forwarded.

b) Summary statement of the beneficiaries in printed and electronic form that includes the number of beneficiaries, the total amount to be paid, in writing and numerically, per bank or credit institution. The situation in question is forwarded to DIAS SA and the Directorate of Financial Management of the Ministry of Finance. The amount of the total expenditure is approved by the competent authorizing officer of the Ministry of Finance, after a recommendation from the AADE.

5. The printed consolidated statement of paragraph b of paragraph 4 of this article is sent through the General Directorate of Financial Services (GDOU) of the Ministry of Finance to the Directorate of Accounts and Cash Planning of the General Accounting Office of the State ( GLC) which issues, based on this, a special order to the Bank of Greece to debit the account of the ED No 200 “Greek Government Collection of Receipts – Payments” and credit the interim account of the Greek Government with IBAN code GR22 0100 0230 0000 0242 1220 698 with the name “ED Payments through the mediation of DIAS SA” held at the Bank of Greece with i) the total amount to the beneficiaries and ii) with the amount regarding the total cost per transaction to third parties (DIAS SA) in accordance with 109/12-03-2019 act of the Governor of the Bank of Greece. The Bank of Greece is authorized to cover it per transaction to third parties.

After the approval of the Accounts and Cash Planning Division of the General Accounting Office of the State which is provided electronically through an online application, the account with IBAN GR22 0100 0230 0000 0242 1220 698 is debited in order to route the individual payments to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The above order is notified to the Financial Management Directorate of the General Directorate of Financial Services of the Ministry of Finance and to DIAS SA.

6. The amounts that failed to be paid are returned to the Hellenic State account with IBAN GR71 0100 0230 0000 0000 0200 211 with reason for movement the special payment code of DIAS SA and are accounted for as revenues of the Regular Budget. For unsuccessful payments, DIAS SA informs the Ministry of Finance and the AADE.
7. The second payment cycle for the unsuccessful payments of the first cycle takes place in two stages. In the first stage, AADE informs the beneficiaries again, so that they can correct errors or omissions when submitting the “Covid Declaration” or the “Property Lease Information Statement” or correct the bank account in AADE’s TAXISnet Personalized Information. In the second stage, A.A.D.E. processes the “Covid Declarations” after the corrections and approves or rejects them in order to carry out the payments of the beneficiaries following the steps of the above procedure (approval of credits, creation of a new statement by A.A.D.E., transfer of amount to the intermediate account and payment of amounts through DIAS). The second payment cycle is final.
8. The appearance of the relevant payments in the public register is carried out by the issuance of offsetting money orders by the GDOU of the Ministry of Finance.
9. As supporting documents for the issuance of the relevant of money orders, the following are defined:

a) this decision,

b) the decision of the Minister of Finance on the issuance of the offsetting money order,

c) the consolidated statement of paragraph b of paragraph 4 of this article,

d) a copy of the special order to the Bank of Greece and a statement (extract) of the Bank of Greece for the debit of account No. 200. For the payment of due to the amount, the special payment order of par. 5 hereof takes the place of a commitment decision.