Greece unveils measures to push economy in post-pandemic period

Greece unveiled on Thursday a series of tax cuts and reductions to social security payments in a bid to give the economy a push in the post pandemic period.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced five measures targeting employees and companies during a teleconference meeting on the restart of the Greek economy.

Specifically, the Prime Minister announced that:

• From this year – and on a permanent basis – the tax advance paid by individuals who have their own business will be reduced from 100 percent to 55 percent.
• The tax advance will be reduced - again on a permanent basis - for legal entities and legal entities from 100 percent to 80 percent from 2022. For this year only, it will be reduced even more to 70 percent.
• The tax rate of all legal entities and all legal entities will be reduced on a permanent basis from 2022, ie for the tax year of ‘21, from 24 percent to 22 percent.
• The reduction by 3 percentage points of social insurance contributions paid by employees in the private sector is extended to 2022
• The suspension of the special solidarity contribution to the private sector is also extended for 2022.

The Prime Minister said: "The government has shown that its constant priority is to reduce taxes before, during and after the pandemic. And our first concern after the fight against the health crisis is the rapid recovery of the economy and for this purpose we are announcing today five measures which will be the basis, the foundation, for the decisive return to recovery. And they will enable businesses that have suffered losses during the pandemic to be able to return to a positive path again," the prime minister said, adding that "at the same time, they are measures that will provide liquidity to the economy, dynamic momentum and also attract investment."

Moves welcomed

According to the President of the Economic Chamber of Greece, Konstantinos Kollias, the relief measures announced by the government create a roadmap for a return to economic growth, give businesses breathing space.He added that he also sees the correct implementation of the Recovery Plan as playing a crucial role in securing Greece’s sustainable economic future.

As Kollias said, speaking at the OEE web seminar on the Bridge 2 program:

"We welcome the tax and insurance reliefs announced by the Prime Minister to stimulate entrepreneurship. These are interventions, which have the direct aim of relieving businesses, both in taxation (reduction of tax advance, reduced tax rates to 22 percent and abolition of the solidarity contribution), as well as in social security insurance (extension of the reduction by 3 percentage points for private sector employees or 2022).

These are measures that are more than necessary on the path for the fastest possible reorganization of the Greek economy. And I am very happy, because they are proposals submitted by the Economic Chamber of Greece. With measures like these, in combination with the correct implementation of the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, it is a given that the Greek economy will be able to return to sustainable and healthy growth rates."