Responses to the requests for review of the refundable advance should be provided by the end of October.

Thus, the Government Gazette published the amended decision of the Ministries of Finance, Development and Investment for the review of applications for the refundable advance in enterprises affected financially affected by COVID-19.

The repayable advance

The decision states, inter alia, that requests for the refundable advance will be answered by 31 October 2023. It is clarified that requests for a review relating to undertakings which have ceased trading, irrespective of the reason for the cessation of activity at the time of payment of the aid, cannot be granted.

While requests for reconsideration concerning applicant enterprises which have made, in a previous year from the submission of the application for the grant, a declaration of commencement of business activity and a discontinuation of business activity in the tax register, are examined taking into account only the financial data of the business activity resulting from the last declaration of commencement.

In detail, the following are highlighted:

The para. Article 2 of Article 1 of Joint Ministerial Decision No GDR 33/2022 is replaced by the following

"2. The DGOU of the Ministry of Finance reviews the applications for grants which have been rejected solely on the basis of the information provided by the undertakings, on the basis of the information sent to it in writing by the AADE together with the application to which they relate. Tax audits of books and records or any other audit shall be carried out exclusively by the competent authorities, informing the DGOU of the Ministry of Finance, for its results as regards the final recording of the financial data, in case they differ from those sent in writing by the Hellenic Revenue Authority, as described above."

The para. 6 of Article 1 of Joint Ministerial Decision No GDR 33/2022 is replaced by the following

"6. The procedure and conditions for the repayable advance shall be governed mutatis mutandis by the decisions referred to in paragraph 1. 1 of Article 1. The grace period is defined as the period from the payment of the aid until 31.5.2023. If payment of the aid is made after 1.3.2023 as a grace period shall be defined as the period from the payment of the aid until the last day of the second month following the payment of the aid.

The para. 1 of Article 3 of the Joint Ministerial Decision entitled 'Business Transformation' under reference GDR 33/2022 is replaced by the following:

"1. In the case of undertakings which have submitted a request for review and whose transformation process, either partially or completely,is within the tax or calendar periods taken into account for the assessment of the application for authorisation, the provisions of the decisions of par. 1 of Article 1, taking into account the provisions of Law No. 1297/1972, ν. 2166/1993, ν. 4172/2013, and n. 4601/2019. The concept of transformation referred to in the preceding subparagraph shall also include the case of a contribution of a sole proprietorship or sole proprietorships to any form of company.

The verification of the conditions is carried out cumulatively for all the undertakings being transformed. In particular as regards the condition of maintaining the level of employment and where the transformation of undertakings takes place within the period of time between the initial and final date taken into account for the maintenance of the level of employment, the number of employees of the transformed enterprises on the starting date shall be compared with the number of employees of the transformed enterprises on the final date, in absolute terms."

Article 4 of Joint Ministerial Decision No 33/2022, entitled 'Other matters - Entry into force', is replaced by the following

The statement of the amount to be refunded

"1. In the case of a merger, the confirmation of the amount to be refunded, in accordance with the decisions of par. 1 of Article 1 shall be carried out in the acquiring undertaking. particularly:

α) if the merger has taken place in a year subsequent to the year in which the comparison for the control of the reduction in income from sales of goods and services is carried out, the comparison, for all the criteria set out in the EAA, shall be carried out separately for each undertaking.

(b) If the merger has taken place in a year included in the comparison for the purpose of controlling the reduction of income from sales of goods and services, the criterion of the start of operations shall be defined by the acquiring company, the comparison shall be made on the aggregate amounts, the existence of a loss shall be calculated at the level of a single "entity" and the retention of the number of personnel related to the enterprises that received a refundable advance shall be made taking into account the initial and final date of retention of personnel, as defined in each decision under par. 1 of Article 1, in absolute number of persons.

The above also applies in the case of a contribution of a sole proprietorship or sole proprietorships to any form of company.

2. In the case of a split, the confirmation of the refundable amount, in accordance with the decisions of par. 1 of Article 1 shall be carried out in the recipient undertaking(s). particularly:

α) in the case of a division occurring in a year included in the comparison of the reduction in income from the sale of goods and provision of services, the certification shall be made to the recipient undertaking(s), or to the transferor, if it continues to exist, according to the contribution of the turnover of each of them to the total turnover of the activity, based on the KAU, for which the transferor was assisted or, if this calculation is not possible, according to the book value of the equity of the above undertakings on the date of the division

b) The control of the criterion:

• of the start of operations shall be calculated on the basis of the recipient,
• of a reduction in revenue from sales or services and the existence of a loss shall be based on the
• data of the receiving company and/or the transferor,
• of the retention of staff shall take into account the initial and final date of retention of staff, as specified in each decision referred to in paragraph 1. 1 of Article 1, in absolute terms.

The response to the requests for review

3. The process of responding to requests for review shall be completed by 31 October 2023. The duration of the working group set up by Decision No 154382 EX 2021 (D.O.D. 1066) shall be from the date of its establishment until that date.

4. Requests for a review concerning undertakings which have ceased their activities for any reason whatsoever at the time the aid is paid may not be granted.

5. Requests for reconsideration concerning applicant undertakings which have made, in a year prior to the submission of the application for a grant, a declaration of commencement for exercise of business activity and discontinuation of business in the tax register, shall be examined taking into account only the financial data of the business activity resulting from the last opening declaration.

6. Without prejudice to Article 2 of the Legislative Decree of 13.4.2020 (A' 84), changes in the tax register that affect the calculation of the amount of aid in accordance with the decisions of par. 1 of Article 1, shall be taken into account if they have been declared by the date of publication of the decisions under A1076/2020, DGOU 131/2020, DGOU 207/2020, DGOU 281/2020, DGOU 1/2021, DGOU 154/2021, DGOU 366/2021, respectively.

7. Applications for the granting of refundable advance, for which the process of submission to the electronic platform "myBusinessSupport" was not completed, exclusively due to the fact that there was no relevant possibility according to the implementation of paragraph. 1 of Article 6 of the Decisions referred to in par. 1 of Article 1 by the AADE because the applicant undertakings did not meet all the criteria laid down in those decisions, they shall be deemed to have been submitted within the time limit.

The above applies provided that the applicant companies have accessed the above online application for the submission of an application for an allocation in due time and have submitted a request for review in due time, regardless of whether they have been entered in the list of companies that have submitted an application for an allocation in due time, by the AADE. In case they are not included in the above list, their subsequent registration is not required in order for the DGU of the Ministry of Finance to respond to the request for review."