In the afternoon of Wednesday, 30/12/20, 101.613 accounts are expected to be credited to the accounts of the Greek government. non-employed insured persons in e-EFKA the refunds resulting from the clearance carried out by the institution for the 2019 social security contributions. The total amount to be made available will eventually amount to €98.019 million and, according to the Ministry of Labor will be credited to the beneficiaries' accounts from Wednesday afternoon, 30 December 2020. In total, 135,346,225.11 euros were due for reimbursement to 158,600 active self-employed, self-employed and farmers. Of course, 56,987 of them did not declare their IBAN by today and thus will not be on the list of first payments. The amount of €37,326,847.79 corresponding to them will be reimbursed at the end of January or offset against their contributions for the following months.

This is because, according to the e-EFKA, a prerequisite for the refund is that those interested must register their IBAN account on the Fund's website by 14 January 2021 (www.efka.gov.gr -> e-services->

Individual Data «Contact Details»). It should be noted that the return of the amounts to the accounts of the insured persons will finally complete the life cycle of the contribution system of law 4387/2016 (Katrougalos law), where contributions were paid based on the income of the insured persons.

With the law. 4670/2020 (Vroutsis Act), the insurance reform passed in February 2020, the new system of free choice of insurance categories was implemented from 1/1/2020. In fact, the deadline for selecting an insurance category for 2021 is 31 January 2021. Those insured non-employees who do not choose a category will remain in the category they chose in 2020.

Of course, the year closes with two main obligations for millions of businesses and self-employed professionals, as by 31 December all businesses must submit the detailed periodic declarations for November and pay the corresponding contributions, while non-employees must also pay the November contributions for main and supplementary insurance by tomorrow, Thursday.

Already, the notices have been posted on the special website of e-EFKA. Of course, as has been the case in recent months, it is possible that in the last month of the year, too, the short extension so that payments can be made by the first week of the New Year. It should be noted here that the ESEE in a letter to the leadership of the Ministry of Labor and Finance calls for the coverage of the November insurance contributions of traders who remain closed by state mandate, from the special unemployment account self-employed.

Reintegration into regulation

By the end of the year, i.e. in a few hours, the deadline for KEAO debtors to rejoin an old, lost arrangement expires. In detail, a recently passed provision enabled debtors - former employers, freelancers and self-employed persons - whose deadline for payment of instalments of their active arrangements was extended by 3 months (in the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic) and who lost their arrangement between June 2020 and October 2020, to rejoin the same arrangement. The main condition is that they pay the November 2020 instalment by 31 December 2020.

But the other employers must also submit their payroll tax returns for the November 2020 pay period by the end of the year and pay the corresponding social security contributions. An extension, until 15 January, was granted by the e-FMS board only for employer companies operating in the tourist accommodation sector (either as a primary or secondary activity) of twelve months« duration. The same extension also applies to the payment of labour contributions of employees exclusively in the above-mentioned contracting undertakings, which have joined the »Co-working" mechanism.