Tax Updates: February 13th 2024

The Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) recently issued Decision A.1016/2024, which provides clarifications regarding the implementation of Directive (EU) 2021/514 (known as DAC7), which was transposed into Greek law by virtue of law 5047/2023. We note that these provisions impose on digital platform operators the obligation to report to the Greek tax authorities the data of the sellers operating through the platform, while also providing for the automatic exchange of such data with the tax authorities of other Member States.

The above mentioned Decision A.1016/2024 indicates the Greek tax authorities (departments of AADE) that are competent for:

• receiving the above information and transferring it to the competent authorities of the reportable sellers’ Member States;
• registering non-EU platform operators, who select Greece as the country of their sole registration, and notifying the other Member States thereof through the central register of the European Commission;
• determining which platform operators should be designated as “excluded” and verifying which platform operators could be exempted from reporting obligations;
• carrying out compliance controls and imposing respective penalties.

Furthermore, Decision A.1016/2024 also indicates the time and manner for the submission by platform operators of the above information on sellers, and for the submission of requests for exclusion/exemption from the reporting obligation.

More specifically:

• Platform operators requesting to be designated as “excluded” from application of the new reporting rules, will have to submit by 31 October of each calendar year the documentation supporting their exclusion (with regard to the next reporting period), i.e. they should submit the documentation evidencing that the entire business model of their platform is such that there can be no reportable sellers. For the year 2023, the above deadline for submitting the documentation supporting the exclusion expires on 26 February 2024.
• Platform operators requesting to be exempted from the reporting obligation on grounds that the same data have been submitted by another platform operator to the Greek authorities or to the authorities of another Member State, should submit sufficient evidence of the above facts supporting their exemption by
  31 March of the year of submission.
• Platform operators, who meet the reporting requirements in another Member State as well, can be exempted from their reporting obligations in Greece if they select to report in that other Member State and on condition that they notify in writing accordingly the competent department of AADE within one month from the date the above requirements are met (specifically for the year 2023, the deadline for the above notification expires on 26 February 2024).
• In case there is no data on reportable sellers, reporting platform operators will have to submit electronically a nil report no later than 31 January of the year following the reporting period (and in accordance with the technical instructions published by AADE on its website).
• Τhe submission of the information to the competent department of AADE is made by sending files of xml type (in line with EU standards).
• Platform operators must register with the Mutual Data Submission System of AADE within one month of becoming “reporting” platform operators even when they meet the conditions for exemption from the reporting obligation. Especially for the year 2023, the above registration deadline does not apply and the registration must be completed before the reporting deadline for 2023 expires, i.e. before 26 February 2024.
• The OECD commentaries on the Model Rules for Reporting by Platform Operators should be followed as an interpretative source when applying the reporting rules.

Finally, Decision A.1016/2014 extends until 26 February 2024 (instead of
31 January 2024) the deadline for submitting the required data or nil reporting for the year 2023 and indicates that reporting for the year 2023 should be carried out from 12 February 2024 to 26 February 2024.