To the Minister of Finance Mr. Christos Staikouras & the Minister of Labor Mr. Yannis Vroutsis.
COM.: The Deputy Minister of Economy. Mr. Apostolos Vesyropoulos The Governor of AADE Mr. Giorgos Pitsilis.
SUBJECT: The submission of a responsible statement for the rent reduction is a prerequisite! 20.4.2020
Dear Mr. Ministers
As is known, with article 2 of the PNP of 20.3.2020 the reduction by 40% of the professional rents for the months of March and April 2020 of the companies that were forced to close due to COVID-19 and their employees. Later this reduction was extended to an extremely large number of beneficiary affected businesses and their employees.
A four-month suspension of their tax obligations was announced for the lessors of these properties, in a period essentially no liability for consistent taxpayers, and later added a 25% reduction in any liability they may have from tax arrangements from arrangements expiring by 30.4.2020 Much later, and after realizing that these owners too were turned into pre-eminent sufferers, the The Ministry of Finance promised that it is considering relief measures based on the losses of each person’s rents.
In reality, however, all rental housing and a huge number of commercial rental landlords are, to date, excluded from the of things from the above reliefs for the following reasons:
First, with regard to housing lessors, which are most of them, even though all employees normally submit the responsible their declarations on the special platform “ERGANI” of the Ministry of Labor with the details of their lessors, the lessors of houses have not been included among the beneficiaries of tax reliefs, as a result of which they cannot benefit from the reduction of their existing debts by 25%!!!
Secondly, a necessary legal condition for any professional to be entitled to a reduction in the rent of his professional home is the submission of a responsible declaration on the “ERGANI” online platform of the Ministry of Labor, with the details of his lessor, and the details of any employees suspended from work, (so that they can also declare their lessors and receive the relevant allowance). In particular, the AADE platform, in order to give and display a 25% debt reduction from home, derives the lessor’s VAT number from “ERGANI”.
Despite the submission process of this declaration is provided for by decision 13272/Δ1.4607/30.3.2020 (FeKB 1131/2.4.2020) and combined with the other authorizing decisions is mandatory, it was simplified so that it can be done within a minute by the professional himself with only his VAT number and in the event that he does not employ workers, however a significant number of freelancers in the affected category, and in particular those who do not employ workers, mistakenly believe that they do not have an obligation to submit this declaration, thus depriving their lessors of any right , while they rush to unilaterally implement the rent reduction, without the specific document documenting it! The situation will become even more complicated when, according to the announcement of the Ministry of Finance, it will soon be necessary to implement a procedure for declaring rental losses, which will be based on the above responsible declarations of the professionals, the lack of which will mean the complete loss of any tax relief of the real estate lessors!
That is why we call on you to include in your decisions the above first home landlords as beneficiaries of all the tax reliefs envisaged, and on the other hand to make it clear and beyond all doubt that all those entitled to a rent reduction are professionals, even those who do not employ staff, who are obliged to make a declaration on the “ERGANI” platform of the Ministry of Labour, otherwise their request for a rent reduction without submitting the responsible declaration is illegal!
The President The Secretary General Stratos I. Paradias Tasos G. Vappas p>
