Freelancer

Social security contributions for more than 800,000 non-salaried workers, freelancers, self-employed professionals and farmers are expected to increase by 2.7% from January of the new year, following the average annual inflation of 2024.

Unknown details about the IRIS system, which allows free money transfers between friends, and DIAS S.A., the hub that connects all banks for money transfers, were presented on Friday morning by the CEO of DIAS, Stavroula Kampouridou.

As she specifically stated:

The Ministry Finance will extend the option of consumers to pay at the POS of all businesses through IRIS from the first quarter of 2025, expanding the possibilities of direct payments as the safest, cheapest and fastest way to conduct transactions.

The beneficiaries of the new measures, which were announced by the Prime Minister at the TIF and will roll out from now until the end of 2025, will be presented today by the Minister of National Economy and Finance.

Next week, the method of calculating the social security contributions of 800,000 freelancers, self-employed and farmers will be determined.

The law stipulates that as of 2025, the contributions of the self-employed will be decoupled from inflation and linked to the rate of wage adjustment.

There are close to 530,000 freelancers and self-employed people who have linked their business account to the IRIS direct payment system, through which they can accept payments from their clients in real time.

At the Maximos Mansion, preparations are in full swing for TIF. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is finalizing his speech, aiming to mark the start of the political season and set a foundation for a three-year plan leading up to the 2027 elections.

Faced with a hefty fine as long as professionals and self-employed people do not join the payment system. The obligors’ mobile phone must be connected to a business account, the one that in banking terminology is called a “current account.

At the end of June, EFKA, the cosolidated social security agency, had delayed issuing 19,166 pensions, mostly to professionals, freelancers and farmers.

Greece's Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis defended the introduction of the minimum presumptive income for freelance professionals and the self-employed based on which they were taxed for the first time this year, telling Kathimerini it is a "fair measure" toward salaried employees and pensioners who traditionally paid more tax.