Greece myData Going Live Soon

Greece has gone all digital with the implementation of the myDATA platform, keeping up with other EU member states that have implemented digital reporting.

The myDATA platform has been designed for companies established in Greece that are subject to the Greek Accounting Standards. It will be mandatory for these companies to declare their financial and accounting data through the transmission of electronic records.

The go-live date for the platform was first postponed to 1 July 2021 and has been postponed further. The start date for digital reporting is different from businesses of different sizes:

• 1st October 2021 – for taxpayers with revenue over €50,000 and double-entry accounting books or with revenue over €100,000 and single-entry accounting books.
• 1st November 2021 – for all other taxpayers.
• Historic data prior to the go-live date must be reported by the end of March 2022.

What is the purpose of data submission through myDATA?

The myDATA submission of companies’ records builds up the company’s electronic accounting books. These submissions are separate from VAT declarations which are dealt with as normal.

However, the tax authorities will cross-check the VAT declaration with the information submitted through myDATA. Where there are discrepancies between the VAT declarations and the amounts reported in myDATA, companies will have two months to correct or justify those discrepancies/errors.

In the case of unjustified discrepancies, companies will be subject to an audit by the IAPR.

How to transmit electronic accounting records to myDATA?

The postponement is not bad news at all as Greek businesses have been granted more time to adapt to the new reporting requirements, the modality of which, again, depends on the size and type of business:

• Medium/large companies can use the following methods for data transmission:
  – their ERP — ad hoc reporting following the tax authority’s guidance must be implemented.
  – adopting the services of e-invoicing service providers.
• Small Businesses can submit manually through the myDATA platform
• Retailers can submit through cash registers connected directly to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, or “IAPR” for short!

myDATA – Who must submit the data & what must be submitted?

Now, myDATA is not for everyone!

We already said that only businesses established in Greece subject to the Greek Accounting Standards and making supplies to other businesses must report their sale records through myDATA.

These users are Invoice issuers (i.e. suppliers issuing account receivable invoices and must classify and transmit their revenue documents in real-time reporting.)

Recipients of invoices as expenses (e.g. accounts payable invoices received from issuers-suppliers), on the other hand, do not need to report the documents received if these have been reported by the issuer already.

However, recipients must classify and report the expense where these cannot be matched to those reported by the Issuer in myDATA.

For example, invoices may be issued by a company, not in the scope of myData, such as a foreign company registered for VAT in Greece. Or if a company is in scope, it has not complied with the reporting requirement for the period.

In those instances, the recipient must report the expenses as if it was the issuer.

myDATA – Deadlines for Submission

With regards to deadlines, expenses must be classified and reported before the end of the VAT return submission period, which is the last day of the month following that to which the declaration relates.

Where the issuer omitted to report any of the documents classified and reported by the recipient, the recipient must report and classify these expenses within the next 2 months from the deadline for VAT return submission.

In addition, all companies must submit accounting entries required to finalise the annual accounts and determine their corporation tax liability. These accounting entries are year-end adjustments such as payroll, depreciation, accruals, etc.:

• Adjusting accounting entries, except for payroll, must be submitted to myData before the deadline of submission of the income tax return (August 31).
• Payroll entries must be submitted by the deadline of the withholding tax return, this is the last day of the second month following that of the payroll, i.e. September 30th for July payroll.

As mentioned earlier, unlike corporation tax, VAT declaration remains an external process. VAT returns will be prepared and submitted based on the revenue and expense data submitted through myDATA. The Greek authorities will refer to the entries in myDATA to crosscheck the correctness of the submissions.

The whole process may appear logical and simple in its concept, however, businesses may not necessarily have the required expertise to adapt to the new digital reporting requirements.

If unsure as to what it takes for your business to become compliant, please get in touch. At TBI we have built a wealth of knowledge and experience assisting businesses from many industries to meet their compliance requirements with digital transformation and reporting across all jurisdictions that have digitalised their revenue collection systems.

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