In a new extension of the deadline for repayment of the refundable advance, the Ministry of Finance .

As the ministry says, following a series of institutional interventions by the government and the Ministry of Finance for the support, through the seven cycles for the refundable advance, enterprises affected by the economic impact of Covid-19, in December 2022, a Joint Ministerial Decision was issued to address technical issues and, among other things, a new opportunity was given to complete the supporting documents, after the issuance of certificates of undue payments for the refundable advance, which took place on 02/11/2022.

In addition, a recalculation was carried out on the certificates of undue payments due to non-compliance with the mandatory retention of employees. This resulted in a reduction of approximately 42% of the amounts originally certified.

The decision on the repayable advance

Thus, a new Joint Ministerial Decision was also launched, which will provide that:

• The deadline for submitting supporting documents to the "myBusinessSupport" electronic platform of the Independent Public Revenue Authority is extended until 31/05/2023 for those businesses - beneficiaries who have not yet fully submitted the required supporting documents for receiving aid through the Reimbursable Advance; and
• The payment of undue payments is extended until 30/06/2023.

Control of objections

At the same time, thousands of applications and objections from businesses and professionals affected by the pandemic are under the microscope of the Ministry of Finance's auditors. But they were "cut off" from the aid granted through the seven cycles of repayable advances.

The General Directorate of Financial Services is expected to have completed its review of the applications by February 28, 2023.

Completion of the reviews will give the green light for the payment of government loans to eligible businesses and professionals. Those who receive the state aid will be required to repay the refundable advance in 96 interest-free instalments. The start will be from June 2023 and the amounts will be "trimmed" up to 75%.

It should be noted that the current framework provides that if the review reveals the merits of the request, the file is sent by the relevant tax authority to the Hellenic Tax Administration for review.

Then, the Hellenic Tax Administration re-performs an automated check of the conditions. It takes into account only the data declared by the company to the tax administration. There is always the reservation of the provisions of these decisions to carry out cross-checks and tax audits.

If the automated check reveals that the company is entitled to the aid, the Directorate-General for Tax Administration and Tax Administration creates an aggregated and detailed list of the beneficiaries and the amount to which they are entitled. The aid is paid by the tax authority of the Ministry of Finance.