Greece's Tax Authority Plans 4,000 Inspections Targeting Evasion Hotspots

Greece's Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) is set to conduct 4,000 on-site and preventive inspections throughout the year, targeting critical business sectors and regions to detect tax evasion. The operational plan prioritizes areas with high transaction volumes and significant cash usage, including tourism, hospitality, retail, vehicle services, and wholesale trade.

These inspections will be guided by risk analysis and data cross-referencing from the myDATA platform, Point of Sale (POS) systems, and Value Added Tax (VAT) declarations. The AADE will also consider businesses' history of violations and seasonal characteristics that indicate high tax risk, leveraging data from declarations, electronic transactions, and past tax behavior.

Key criteria for selecting businesses include low declared revenues relative to industry turnover or POS/myDATA figures, frequent receipt cancellations, delayed submission of transaction documents, significant seasonal activity with low VAT declarations, discrepancies between purchases and sales, and previous infringements. Businesses with a strong social media presence but low declared income or significant deviations from industry averages will also be scrutinized.

Data from 2025 revealed that the tourism sector, encompassing hotels, rental accommodations, villas, travel agencies, and vehicle/boat rentals, exhibited the highest non-compliance rate at 33.7%. The food and beverage sector followed at 32.4%, with retail at 29.3%. Widespread VAT evasion was also detected in wholesale trade of food, pharmaceuticals, technology goods, and metals.

The AADE's new inspections will concentrate on high-seasonality tourist islands like the Cyclades, Dodecanese, Crete, and the Ionian Islands, specifically naming Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Naxos, Rhodes, Kos, Zakynthos, Corfu, Chania, and Heraklion. Major urban centers such as Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, Volos, and Ioannina will also be subject to checks. The goal is to enhance tax compliance and prevent the non-issuance or inaccurate issuance of tax documents, revenue concealment, and improve adherence to electronic data submission requirements.