Which deposits and investments are targeted by the tax authorities

Bank deposit and investment account data for all taxpayers are transmitted by the banks to the AADE, but those most likely to be checked for their account movements will be the "large" depositors, with movements of more than 100,000 euros per year and the "large" investors, i.e. those who have portfolios of securities with a value of more than 200,000 euros.

The data will be sent by banks by 29 February and will first be used to pre-fill tax returns with interest income. However, based on the same data, the tax authorities will be able to cross-check the taxpayers' declared incomes in order to identify movements that are not justified by their incomes and conceal cases of tax evasion. The checks will be able to reach 5 years, i.e. until 2018 - previous years have fallen under the statute of limitations.

Two categories of depositors and investors are singled out by the AADE as being of higher risk:

• Those who have within the year 2023 movements of more than 100,000 euros in a bank account. Movements are defined as the sum of deposits or the sum of withdrawals made within the year,
• Those who have movable property (shares, bonds, etc.) exceeding EUR 200,000.

The tax authorities will also pay particular attention to the amounts paid by taxpayers to repay loans during the year, with an emphasis on identifying amounts that are probably not justified by the declared income. Card transactions, including cash withdrawals from ATMs, are also under the microscope.

In particular, credit institutions, including branches of foreign credit institutions, financial institutions, payment card clearing houses and payment institutions operating in Greece, the Hellenic Post (ELTA), the Hellenic Central Securities Depository S.A. (ELKAT-ATHEXCSD), as well as Investment Services Companies, are required to forward to the General Secretariat of Public Revenue of the Ministry of Finance, to the Electronic Governance Department of the General Secretariat of Public Revenue, by February 29, statements in electronic format, which will contain the movements of taxpayers' bank accounts.

Banks will have to send the information to the AADE by the end of February:

• The amount of credit and debit interest on deposits and repos earned by the individual in the previous year, as well as the amount of tax withheld, with the details of the beneficiaries/participants, such as surname, last name, VAT number and calendar year of reference.
• Full details of bank accounts with an annual turnover of more than EUR 100 000. The total of net credits or debits, whichever is greater, is taken as the movement and not the sum of them. For the calculation of the annual total net credits or debits of a customer (taxpayer), the following are taken into account: transfers from (to) banks, payment institutions and the Post Office, cash deposits/withdrawals or deposits/withdrawals by bank/private cheques and transfers by persons other than the account holders within the same organisation (credit institution, payment institution and Post Office). Offsetting of incorrect credit or debit entries on the account, as well as renewals of fixed-term accounts and transfers between accounts with a common beneficiary are not taken into account. For accounts with more than one joint beneficiary, it should be checked that the same persons are joint beneficiaries on both the sending and the receiving bank account. Otherwise, a transfer from an account to an account with non-identical co-beneficiaries may be classified as a donation by the IRS.
• Deposit bank accounts with a total portfolio value of more than EUR 200,000. The information sent relates to securities portfolios of natural persons, as at 31/12 of each reporting year as well as the immediately preceding year, with a monetary value of more than EUR 200,000. The EUR 200,000 threshold is calculated at the level of the individual: if a taxpayer has more than one portfolio with the same or different composition of beneficiaries, the value of these portfolios must be added together, after dividing the balance of each portfolio equally among the joint beneficiaries, in order to determine whether it is greater than the EUR 200,000 threshold.
• The actual amounts of money paid by individuals for the interest amortisation of loans of regular maturity, including accrued and paid interest, default interest and other costs (e.g. management costs).
• Data on transactions using payment cards (debit or credit) including ATM withdrawals.
• Additional data for self-employed persons

For self-employed persons, in addition to personal data, the following will be transmitted in particular:

• Customer accounts (all accounts held or participated in by the institution),
• Names of co-beneficiaries (if there are co-beneficiaries in the account, they are listed in the order in which they are recorded in the institution's computer system),
• Taxpayer identification numbers of the co-beneficiaries (if any, they are listed in the order in which they are recorded in the institution's computer system),
• Total customer account balance as at 1/1 of each year,
•  Credits of each year in the customer's total accounts (including transfers from other banks and cash and cheque deposits, but excluding renewals of fixed-term accounts and transfers between customer's accounts with the same bank),
• Customer's total account balance at 31/12 of each year.