Piraeus Chamber of Commerce & Industry : Incentives to merge European with Greek companies

Vassilis Korkidis, the president of Piraeus Chamber of Commerce & Industry-EVEP, demands that tax incentives be given so that there are mergers of European companies with Greek ones.

In particular, the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in a letter to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Christos Staikouras, points out the right direction of the draft law “Incentives for Business Development, through partnerships and corporate transformations“, which was submitted to the Parliament, and asks for incentives provided by law to be applied between Greek and European companies of the Eurozone, provided that they choose Greece, as a physical and tax base.

The main goal of providing incentives is to create economies of scale, through transformations of very small, small and medium enterprises, but also personal collaborations, for all sectors of economic activity. Essentially, this will give companies a significant incentive to join forces and be exempt, by 30%, from paying income tax on the taxable profits of the new company, while in the case of partnerships of natural persons by farmer profession, this exemption will amount to 50%.

As the Ministry of Finance points out in an announcement, the motives of the bill concern all forms of transformations, including the case of inclusion of a sole proprietorship in any form of company, as well as collaborations of persons, either in the form of binding contracts or joint ventures. new companies.

Benefits

The tax benefit may not exceed the total amount of 500,000 euros, up to nine years from the date of application of the tax exemption, and there are a number of tax incentives, such as the stamp duty and the resulting income tax goodwill of any transformation-related transaction.

It is noted that, professional farmers members of Agricultural Cooperatives and other collective bodies, such as producer groups, as well as professional farmers who enter into binding contracts with a company – buyer for the absorption of their products in the context of contract farming, are granted a 50% exemption from income tax on taxable profits from agricultural business, but provided that 75% of their products are sold in the context of the above partnerships.

Suggestions

The Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry tries, over time, through realistic and measurable proposals, to support healthy entrepreneurship, aiming at the wider development of the Greek Economy. In this direction, EVEP welcomes the proposed bill of the Ministry of Finance and calls for its expansion with further incentives, so as to benefit as many companies as possible.

In this direction, and with emphasis on extroversion, incentives should also be given to join forces of very small and medium-sized Greek nationals with foreign European companies regardless of their size.

Tax exemptions

More specifically, EVEP proposes giving tax exemptions at a rate of 30-50% for a period of 9 years to all new companies that will be created in our country and will result from the merger, both among Greek and between Greek and European companies. That is, to give incentives to European companies to come to our country and cooperate with Greek ones. That is, to bring the funds and part of their turnover to our country, for which the corresponding reduced taxes will be given to the Greek state.

In this case, there may be scales of reduction, but also clauses, depending on the amount of new investments, but also the creation of new jobs. If Greece wants to come earlier than other countries closer to the European flat tax of 15%, planned in the EU and combined with a tax competitive and business attractive 5% dividend tax, it should extend the incentives to the bill with the following:

-To give tax exemptions at a rate between 30-50%, for a period of 9 years, to all companies that will be transformed by the consolidation of companies based in Greece with corresponding European companies in other eurozone countries.

-Strengthen the tax incentives for Greek companies that will be transformed into corporations with subsidiaries of Greek interests in eurozone countries in specific, dynamic, innovative and extroverted sectors, sought by the Greek Economy

-To include in the tax deductions intermediate scales, depending on the amount of corporate capital and jobs, in order to achieve the desired growth of small and medium-sized enterprises with physical and tax headquarters in Greece.

According to the President of EVEP, Vassilis Korkidis, the ancient phrase “power in union” is timeless and relevant, as never before in business. The tax incentives for the merger of companies will lead to the creation of strong business schemes, which will be able to cope with future financial crises, create economies of scale and promote more efficient products and services in Greece and abroad.