A reward of €100 to €3,000 will be “earned” by citizens who report, via their mobile phones and the “Appodixi” application, any cases of tax evasion that come to their attention.

According to AADE (the Greek Independent Authority for Public Revenue), the new version of the application is now available on Google Play and Apple Store.

More than 230,000 citizens have downloaded the app on their mobile phones, while they have made more than 140,000 anonymous complaints.

However, the cash reward measure will not be retroactive but will be implemented upon the publication of the law in the Government Gazette.

This means that those who have assisted the IRS through complaints will not earn any monetary reward.

To get the reward money, people will have to complain anonymously, and after the audit, the company will be fined.

If, following an anonymous complaint against an entity through the “QR code appodixi” scanning application of AADE concerning retail sales data, a tax audit is carried out, and a fine is imposed for violation or falsification or interference in the operation of the tax records, the complainant receives a financial reward following a decision by the Governor of the A.A.D.E.

The financial reward shall amount to ten times the transaction value of the issued retail item for which the complaint was made – including the applicable Value Added Tax – and in no case shall it be less than 100 euros or more than 3,000 euros.

If the complaint concerns several tax items issued by the same entity, the financial penalty shall be calculated on the tax item issued with the highest value.

The monetary reward does not fall under any category of income and is exempt from any tax, withholding, levy, or contribution in favor of the State, Social Security bodies, legal entities under public law or third parties, and is unalienable and unseizable in the hands of the State or third parties.

Notwithstanding any other provision, it shall not be bound and shall not be offset against debts to the State, legal persons governed by public law, local authorities and their legal entities, social security funds, and credit institutions, and shall not be included in the income limits for the payment of any social or welfare benefit.

As stated by the governor of the Hellenic Tax Authority, Giorgos Pitsilis, during the discussion of the tax bill in the Parliament, the incentives of financial rewards for those who report tax evasion are also applied in other countries.

He said in the UK in 2022-23, 509,000 pounds reward bonuses were given to those who reported cases of tax fraud, while the IRS in the US paid 38.7 million dollars to 132 taxpayers who disclosed cases of tax evasion.

It should be noted that the Hellenic Revenue Service has proceeded to a new version of the “Appodixi” application which will recognise the QRCode of the FEMs that have been upgraded and will now include the date and time of issue of the document.”