More than 17,800 businesses and professionals are asking for their return reimbursable advances (total amount) received from seven rounds conducted Ministry of Finance. The aforementioned did not comply with the conditions set by the relevant legislation, such as, for example, retaining staff for a certain period of time, and now it is required to return the amount in a lump sum with interest. In fact, some companies received state aid and then started layoffs, they did not file tax reporting etc. Impressively, some of them will have to repay only 25% of the state loan. For example, a business that received a total of €100,000 had to return €25,000.

A total of 605,530 businesses and professionals received 8.3 billion euros under the reimbursable advance scheme, and the amount they were asked to pay was 2.74 billion euros. Specifically:

• 25% if in 2020 their gross revenues fell by more than 70% compared to 2019 and they recorded a pre-tax loss.

• 33.3%, as gross revenue in 2020 fell by 30-70% compared to 2019, and pre-tax losses were recorded.

• Other businesses return 50%.

According to the legislation, “in the event that during the inspection of activities by the tax inspectorate or other competent audit body it is found that the conditions for this are not met, the maximum limit of assistance is exceeded or false information is provided, an immediate return of all assistance provided with interest is required from the date when it has been provided to the beneficiary, in accordance with applicable national and EU law.”

Several companies that made the layoffs cited as an excuse that they did not know they would have to keep staff, Treasury officials said. In essence, this is the case of a company that received large sums of money from three circles and failed to comply with the state’s containment conditions in any circle, completely ignoring all the conditions stipulated by law and decisions.

This data came from a file sent by Ergani to AADE and showed which companies did not retain staff, as each of the seven cycles of the rebate was provided. For example, enterprises that received a state loan in the first cycle had until October 31, 2020 to keep the number of employees they hired as of March 31, 2020. Each cycle had its own retention date.

Instructions given to the AADE audit engine:

They did not comply with the terms and conditions set by the relevant legislation, such as maintaining staff for a certain period of time.

a) Immediately demand all assistance provided to companies that have not complied with the terms of the retention decision.

b) Exceeding the amount of aid, in case the company is the beneficiary of a smaller amount than granted, shall be refunded with interest from the date of granting the aid, at the European Commission reimbursable rate. The above also applies to the return of all assistance provided in the event that the required supporting documents are not submitted.

What the data of the Ministry of Finance on repayable advances show:

– In the first cycle of the reimbursable advance, 52,490 professionals and businesses received support in the amount of 601,813 million euros.

– In the second cycle, 89,732 professionals and businesses received support in the amount of 1.259 billion euros.

– In the third cycle, 101,522 beneficiaries received support in the amount of 1.510 billion euros.

– In the fourth cycle, assistance reached 2.174 billion euros for 447,041 businesses and professionals.

– In the fifth round, the amount of assistance amounted to 1.225 billion euros for 359,691 professionals and businesses.

– In the sixth cycle, the beneficiaries received an amount of 500 million euros.

– The beneficiaries of the 7th cycle, numbering about 300,000 people, shared 1 billion euros.