Power Pass: new instructions for those beneficiaries «thrown away» by the system - What happened with the E1s

Instructions to the beneficiaries of the power pass gives the Ministry of Digital Governance, after the confusion created in the system, in conjunction with the submission of this year's tax returns for the 2021 income.

The whole issue, according to the announcement of the Ministry of Digital Governance, concerns «citizens who submitted the power pass declaration and subsequently their tax return and who only had to resubmit their power pass declaration in cases where they changed their home address on their tax return and re-identified on the power pass.».

Sources from the Ministry of Finance told «The» that for those who have submitted the declaration and automatically changed its status to «pending submission» will be re-switched automatically, without them having to do anything. 

The Lt. Digital Government refers to the instructions issued on 17 June, when the platform was opened (https://mindigital.gr/archives/3261The initial instructions stated that «The citizen can be transferred to the AADE platform through vouchers.gov.gr, by clicking on the relevant field that appears below the first residence details. The details declared on the AADE platform are registered immediately. Thus, once the beneficiary has filled in the correct first home details, they can return to the Power Pass platform and complete their application».

As highlighted in the instructions to citizens, the change of address must precede the application for the power pass, and shall take place on the platform https://www1.aade.gr/saadeapps3/powerpass/katoikia.

So do the beneficiaries have to do something or not? Tax experts advise those who have already filed a Power pass application and then filed this year's tax return with a change of residence, (just in case) resubmit the power pass application by 5 July, which is the deadline for everyone.

For example, these beneficiaries should see the following message on the screen of their Power pass application: «Your Main Residence Information has been changed and as a result the status of your application has changed and is pending submission. Please confirm your application details and proceed to submit it using the Submit Application button below».

The beneficiaries

The financial assistance relates to electricity bills for the first residence or student accommodation in Greece, issued during the period from 01-12-2021 to 31-05-2022. The subsidy rate is as follows to 60% of the increase in the current price of the first home and, depending on the amount of the bills, can amount up to EUR 600. A Power Pass beneficiary is any citizen who:

• is a tax resident of Greece,
• the net family income after deduction of taxes does not exceed 45,000 €, based on the declared income for the tax year 2020,
• has a VAT number that has not already been declared as a dependent in an application submitted by another person; and
• was charged a total increase of more than 30 € on electricity bills issued between 01-12-2021 and 31-05-2022.

How to apply

1. The citizen enters the platform with his/her passwords at Taxisnet and confirms that the data (name, full name, VAT number, year of birth) displayed are correct.

2. The citizen is invited to choose whether he or she wishes to to apply for himself or a dependent member of his family.

3. The screen shows the details of the main residence by month (address and supply number). The beneficiary can use these data to:

• either to Confirm,
• or to modify them through the «Declaration of Main Residence for Power Pass» (https://www1.aade.gr/saadeapps3/powerpass/katoikia), which has been implemented by the Hellenic Tax Administration. The citizen can be transferred to the AADE platform through vouchers.gov.gr by clicking on the relevant field that appears below the primary residence details. The data declared on the AADE platform are registered immediately. Thus, once the beneficiary has filled in the correct first residence details, he/she can return to the Power Pass platform and complete the application.

1. On the same page, the fields are also displayed so that the citizen can fill in his/her e-mail address, IBAN and the name of the banking institution where the bank account is held.

2. Clicking «Submit», the citizen completes the procedure of filing the application.

For as many days as the application platform remains open, a pre-check will be carried out and notifications will be sent to citizens for any corrections (non-existent benefit, wrong account category, etc.). The processing of applications, the determination of the amount of the refund and its payment to the beneficiaries will take place during the first ten days of July.

It is specified that beneficiaries may apply for both for their main residence and for the student accommodation of dependent members studying in Greece. In these cases, the citizen can submit up to three additional applications for dependent persons, each time following the above steps.

In addition, for those who are required to submit for the first time tax return for the tax year 2021, it is necessary to submit a tax return before applying for the Power Pass. In this case, the net family income, after deducting taxes, for the tax year 2021 will be taken into account.