The process of submitting tax returns for income earned in 2025 is entering the final stretch, as in 15 days the deadline expires for approximately 1.4 million taxpayers who have not yet attended their annual appointment with the Tax Office, but also for those who want to correct errors and omissions in the initial return without the imposition of fines.
The deadline for submitting income tax returns is July 15, and as emerges from the data of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), 80% of households have already submitted their returns.
3 in 10 taxpayers have received a debit assessment while the rest either pay no tax at all or are entitled to a refund.
So far, more than 5.55 million returns have been submitted out of a total of approximately 6.9 million returns that are estimated to be submitted this year.
The "X-ray" of the assessments shows that:
- 33.81% of the returns are debit, with the extra tax that has been assessed already exceeding 3.5 billion euros or 1,866 euros on average. Taxpayers with a debit assessment are called on to pay by July 31, 2026 either the first of the 8 monthly installments of the tax or the entire amount with a discount amounting to 4% for those who submitted the initial return by May 15, 3% for those who submitted the return in the period from May 16 to June 15 and 2% for those who submit their return by July 15, 2026.
- 30.49% of the returns that have been submitted are credit, with the amount of the tax refund already reaching 514.5 million euros or 304 euros on average.
- The remaining returns (35.7%) come out zero, with no obligation for payment or tax refund arising.
Express refunds
Tax refunds to taxpayers with a credit assessment are made through express procedures. Those who do not have tax or insurance debts or a tax clearance restriction see within one week from the submission of the return the amount of the tax refund in their bank account, while for those who have tax debts AADE proceeds to offset the tax refund against their debts.
The offsets are carried out centrally on a weekly basis, while those that cannot be carried out centrally are processed by the DOY or KEBEIS (Certification and Collection Center), without requiring the submission of a refund request by the taxpayer. In any case, a necessary condition for the refund of taxes to beneficiaries is the correct declaration of the IBAN account on the myAADE digital portal.
Income tax debts will be offset as a matter of priority against tax refund entitlements that exist or will arise until July 31, 2026, while in the event that the payment of the tax is made through this offset, the taxpayer is entitled to the discount rate of 2% to 4% corresponding to the time of submission of the return.
Corrections without fines
Taxpayers who submitted their tax returns, but later found errors or omissions in the data, have the possibility to proceed with the submission of amended returns until July 15, without risking fines.
Additions or corrections to a code in the return may limit the tax burden for taxpayers. It is noted that upon entering the platform for amended returns, all the data of the initial forms (E1, E2, E3) are transferred automatically to the new form and the taxpayer only needs to change the specific points they wish.
Taxpayers have the possibility of correcting errors that may have been made when completing the tax return or of filling in critical codes such as codes 787-788 concerning capital consumption, that is, income from previous years which they can invoke to cover presumptions and limit their tax burden.
New assessment
After the additions, removals or corrections of data, a new return will arise in place of the initial one, which will be canceled. A new assessment will follow with the additional data and the tax will be determined based on the final income or imputed data.
In the new assessment notice that will be issued and posted to the taxpayer's account on the electronic portal myAADE.gr, not only the result of the assessment of the amended return will be stated but also the result of the assessment of the initial one.
If the amended return is submitted by the expiry date of the deadline for submitting tax returns, that is, by July 15, 2026, then the taxpayer avoids the fine.