Heavy «bells» are threatened for those who try to circumvent the terms of the repayable advance to join the list of beneficiaries of the grant. The charges can be so serious that the perpetrators can face the financial prosecutor and the State Revenue Service.
As provided by a ministerial decision, in case of possible circumvention of the provisions or submission of statements with false or inaccurate data that modify the amount of gross revenue, turnover or VAT or do not correctly reflect the operating status of enterprises, in order to either the inclusion or increase the amount of aid, the AADE, after cross-checks, can:
- not to provisionally approve the application for the grant of the repayable advance and inform in writing the DGOU of the Ministry of Finance with the relevant information in each case,
- not include the persons which are likely to circumvent the provisions in the detailed and aggregated statements of beneficiaries, informing all relevant departments,
- communicate the findings to the Prosecutor of Economic Crime and the General Directorate of the Economic Crime Unit for the investigation of a possible attempt to commit economic crimes against the Greek State,
- to make the appropriate compliance or control actions, based on the applicable legislation.
It is noted that a few days ago the Ministries of Finance and Labor sent to the Justice Department cases of blatant deception of the State by fraudsters, who set their eyes on the valuable resources of the support measures against the coronavirus, such as the repayable advance.
New applications
At the same time, by the 10th of the month, the deadline for submission, the myBusinessSuport of Independent Authority for Public Revenue will again accept applications from those who had been excluded. Under the second chance given to them by the Ministry of Finance, they will have to resubmit their application, even though the initial one was rejected, because they did not complete their income data by the first quarter of 2021, along with the application form as required by the procedure. Exceptionally, businesses that have declared revenue data by April 19 in the ’My Revenue’ online application, which operates for the purposes of the refundable advance, on the myBusinessSupport platform of the AADE, but by mistake did not submit the application for interest, may also apply.
After the first two payments, approximately EUR 274 million remains to be made available and a «glut» is expected after the enlargement of the perimeter of the beneficiaries. Of course, the final grant application automatically implies acceptance of conditions, such as the retention of staff until August 2021. With the payments of the 7th round, a total of €8.4 billion will have fallen into the economy through the repayable advance scheme.
Notice on tax and insurance obligations
By 20 May, the ministerial decision on the activation of the «tool» of tax and contribution deductions for businesses that have taken liquidity from the refundable advance and are recording a large loss of revenue. Specifically, businesses with employees that had a turnover reduction of at least 30% throughout 2020 and are entitled to a 50% deduction on repayable advances 1 to 3 can receive 35% of the total amount of these repayable advances as a credit, which can be used until the end of this year to pay future tax and insurance liabilities. Thereafter, 100% of the refundable advance must be repaid in 60 installments beginning January 31, 2022.
