March 2023 Monthly Tax Briefing

March's Monthly Tax Briefing covers recent developments in tax legislation, including:

Α. Updates to the List of Preferential Tax Regime Countries for 2021
B. Updates to the List of Non‐Cooperative Countries for 2021

A.    Updates to the List of Preferential Tax Regime Countries for 2021
1.    By virtue of Decision A. 1027/2023 (Government’s Gazette Bulletin B’ 1539/13.3.2023), the Ministry of Finance issued an updated list of preferential tax regime jurisdictions for 2021 as follows:

B.    Updates to the List of Non-Cooperative Countries for 2021
1.    By way of Decision A. 1028/2023 (Government’s Gazette Bulletin Β' 1676/20.3.2023), the Independent Authority of Public Revenues issued the updated list of countries considered to be non-cooperative for 2021. The tax consequences of performing transactions with residents in these countries are as follows:
a.    payments executed to a tax resident in a preferential tax regime country or a non-cooperative country are nondeductible, unless the Greek taxpayer can provide evidence that the respective expenses correspond to real and ordinary transactions which do not result in the shifting of profits, income or capital aimed at tax avoidance or evasion;
b.    payments made to a tax resident of an EU or EEA country may be deducted if there is a legal basis for the exchange of information between Greece and the relevant country.
2.    For the purposes of the Controlled Foreign Companies (CFC) Rules, the non-distributed income of a CFC, subject among other things to tax in a non-cooperative country or in a country with a preferential tax regime, may be considered as taxable income of the Greek tax resident who controls it. The CFC Rules do not apply to EU tax resident CFCs and EAA tax resident CFCs (EAA countries with which an agreement for the exchange of information is in force), provided the establishment or economic activity they pursue is not artificial and aimed at the avoidance of tax due.
3.    The following countries are included in the list of the non cooperative countries for 2021:

2.    Within the framework of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC), the following countries are considered as non-cooperative countries with respect to the time period determined by the Ministry of Finance:

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