Freelancer

A batch of new measures go into effects in January seeks to reduce the tax burden on citizens. It includes several breaks, which can be summarized as follows:

- Freelancers. Tax burdens for many freelancers are slashed.

- Business fee. Those paid with invoices ("blokaki") will have a tax benefit of €400-500 from the abolition of the business fee.

Delivery workers from a private company participated in a motorcade protest in central Athens on Friday, as part of a 24-hour strike declared by their union. The E-food Workers' Union of Attica organized the strike on Friday, along with a work stoppage scheduled for Saturday from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

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.