Filenews 17 May 2024 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
The changes in legislation also led to small variations in the tax returns of individuals for 2023, the submission of which began in the last 24 hours and will be completed on July 31.
The new tax returns for 2023 have some changes compared to previous years, with the aim of implementing the legislation as recently amended. Among other things, changes were made to the fields and codes concerning the deduction of primary employment, based on the Income Tax Law, as amended in relation to the granting of a discount for investment in shares of innovative enterprises.
In addition, fields have been added for the implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering, according to which the Commissioner of Taxation acts as the supervisory authority of obliged entities.
At the same time, upon final submission of the income declaration of employees and self-employed, in cases where a tax debt arises, tax debts related to income tax, the GHS and the special contribution for Defence are automatically created.
The Commissioner of Taxation, Sotiris Markides, speaking to "F", said that for the convenience of taxpayers during the final submission, the link to the Tax Portal (www.taxportal.gov.cy) is provided for payment either through internet banking or jccsmart, as well as for informing the user about his account status with the Tax Department. At the same time, he noted that a guide for completing the income declaration has already been posted on the website of the Tax Department and in the section Direct Taxation/ Circulars/ Information Forms/ Guides, where all the guides of the Tax Department can be found for guidance to the public.
Guide on Tax Dept website re completion of return - https://www.mof.gov.cy/mof/tax/taxdep.nsf/All/2A649DA50D034F2CC22589F1003D69D8?OpenDocument
Automation continues
In the 2023 personal income declaration, there continue to be automations, such as the automatic completion of pension amounts and corresponding deductions (income tax and GHS) from the Treasury and Social Insurance Services. There is also automatic calculation of totals and automatic transfer of tax return amounts to the calculation part of the Tax, the GHS and the Special Contribution for Defence.
The tax return for 2023 has been posted much more timely on the TAXISnet service, so taxpayers have about 2.5 months to submit it completed.
The fines
The Commissioner of Taxation indicated that any tax return submitted after July 31st will be considered a late filing of a return and a charge of €100 will be imposed on the taxpayer. It is reminded that employees, pensioners and self-employed persons whose gross income for the year 2023 is greater than €19,500 are obliged to submit an income declaration. However, the legislation stipulates that filing tax returns is mandatory for everyone, regardless of income. Please also note that if your income is less than €19,500 but you have lived in Cyprus for 17+ years, you must submit a return so that the defence levy can be paid.
Last year there was a delay in posting tax returns for 2022 due to the late passage of legislation affecting the tax system. By the deadline for filing the 2022 individual income return, a total of 293,500 tax returns had been filed.
Update the declarations
Regarding the progress of the clearance of the income statements of an individual for the previous years, according to the Commissioner of Taxation, the clearance of the vast majority of the tax returns for 2021 has been completed and within the next few months the clearance of the income returns of 2022 is expected, which is the last tax year for which the Individual Income Returns have been submitted.
"Now, with the liquidation of the 2022 tax year, there will be no pending issues, which is happening for the first time," Markides said. Concluding, the Superintendent said that the Department's goal is to clear the majority of tax returns within 6-12 months from the day they are submitted, starting from tax year 2023.
