Bounty for tax evasion: Reward for Greeks denouncing through “Appodixi” app

155,000 citizens have installed the application on their mobile phones. Almost 74,000 complaints about fake receipts

The provision that defines the amount of the monetary reward that citizens who report fake receipts through the “Appodixi” application is ready and is expected to be submitted to the Parliament in the next period.

Citizens who have entered the game of checking the validity of the receipts and help the tax audit mechanism to identify tax-evading companies will receive a “bonus” which will be multiple times the value of the receipt. According to information, depending on the value of the transaction, the monetary reward can reach up to 10 times the value of the receipt with a maximum limit of 1,500 to 2,000 euros.

The forgotten appodixi app and the coming election

Since September 20, when the new measure was activated, until today 155,000 citizens have installed the “Appodixi” application on their mobile phones, through which they scan receipts and check their validity. Complaints about “suspicious” transactions have so far reached 73,834 of which 32,789 are named and 41,045 are anonymous. Most of the complaints concern receipts that have been issued by a registered cash register but had not yet been transmitted to the AADE electronic system.

However, the “Appodixi” application proves to be the Indpendent Public Revenue Authority-AADE’s best ally in the hunt against tax evasion as it reveals tax evasion “basins” and shuts down businesses that issue receipts from “hacked” mechanisms. Audits also reveal the tricks used by professionals to hide their real income from the Tax Office. In particular, cases were identified of companies which, while they had normally issued receipts with the actual value for each transaction, subsequently, during the transmission of the details of the receipts to AADE, had declared a lower transaction value. That is, another amount was written on the receipt and another amount has been entered in the myDATA e-books.

Appodixi on mobile works as follows:

1. The user opens the application and through the mobile camera, “scans” the QR code of the receipt.

2. Depending on the status of the receipt, the application generates the following messages:

– The receipt has been forwarded to AADE. In this case, the details of the receipt are displayed (cash register number, company VAT number, receipt number, date and time of the transaction, VAT transaction value and in transactions with gas stations, the quantity and type of fuel). In this case, it is checked whether the information displayed in the application is the same as that displayed in the receipt. That is, if the value shown on the receipt is the same as the value that has been transmitted to AADE. If there is a difference, this means that there has probably been an intervention in the tax mechanism of the business, so that a different amount appears on the customer’s receipt and another, smaller amount is transferred to AADE.

– The receipt is declared, but the receipt has not yet been forwarded to AADE. In this case, the date and time beyond which the receipt should have been sent to AADE is mentioned. If the receipt has been issued before this point, the report for non-transmission of the receipt is indicated.

– The QR code cannot be read or the cash register is not declared or is not active. In this case, submitting a report to the application is indicated.

The complaint

If the user chooses to report the receipt, he is asked to do the following:

1. Take a photo of the receipt.

2. Enter the reference, in the form of a List of Options field (with the possibility of selecting a value).

3. To add any comments he wants.

4. To choose whether to make an anonymous or named complaint.