Taxpayers will need to use cash even less

Taxpayers will need to increase the number of transactions they conduct with credit or debit cards and via e-banking in 2019 in order to see some of their annual income exempted from taxation, as the Finance Ministry is planning to raise the minimum requirement by up to 50 percent or even more.

According to the information available to date, the minimum amount of online transactions required will rise from 10-20 percent of yearly incomes (depending on the level of each income) to 15-25 percent.

Ministry officials argue that the existing requirements are particularly low and do not correspond to the transactions implemented. Sources, however, do not rule out that the requirement of online transactions may rise to between 20 and 30 percent of annual income, though this will be decided after an examination of the tax declarations for the 2017 incomes.

As things stand now, a taxpayer with an annual income of 20,000 euros needs to make electronic transactions of just 2,500 euros per year in order to secure a tax exemption. If the requirement grows, this will come to 3,500 euros. For taxpayers earning 40,000 euros per year, the exemption requires online transactions of 6,000 euros, and that may well rise to 8,000 euros.

Source: ekathimerini.com