E-receipts and presumptions in the income of 2020

The suspension of presumptions and electronic receipts is being examined by the Ministry of Finance due to the pandemic. The issue of electronic receipts will be regulated while for the issue of presumptions the Minister of Finance has stated that “everything is being evaluated, we will see how the situation progresses again next month, after three months, after six months and so on“. The government is considering various scenarios for both cases:

1. Electronic receipts: According to the legislation, taxpayers in 2020 should cover 30% of their income with electronic receipts.
   However, in the midst of a pandemic, the Economic Staff is examining the following:

– Reduction of the limit of 30% to 20 or 10% if it is proved that the taxpayers reduced their transactions in 2020 due to the pandemic and quarantine or due to the reduction of their income.
In this case, the tax penalty of 22% on the difference between the requested receipts and those collected will remain.

– Not applying the 22% tax penalty to the difference between the receipts that have been collected and those that are missing.

– Increase of the number of taxpayers who are excluded from the measure of e-receipts.

2. Presumption of living: The issue of exemption from presumptions of living for taxpayers affected by the pandemic will be considered. The temporary deactivation of the presumptions for houses and cars, is considered to be targeted and to most likely concern employees who were suspended for a long time in 2020 and received the special purpose compensation, professionals who had and have an overwhelming reduction of their revenue as well as sole proprietorships closed by state order. A regulation to suspend presumptions, according to Finance Ministry officials, is deemed as necessary as there is a risk that hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who suffered huge reductions in their incomes due to the pandemic in 2020 may not be able to cover the presumptions and be asked to pay exorbitant taxes for fictitious incomes. The scenario to completely deactivate presumptions in 2020 for all taxpayers is also being considered.