Shipping Companies Voluntary Grant 2014/2017

October 20, 2014

This article discusses the Shipping Companies Voluntary Grant 2014/2017, an agreement between the Greek government and the maritime community to support Greece's financial recovery through annual funding based on tax contributions from shipping companies and that was ratified by art. 42 of L. 4301/2014.

More specifically, the agreement covers all Greek flag ships or ships under foreign flag but managed by domestic or foreign companies, established in Greece in accordance with the Law. 27/1975. The voluntary grant is calculated at the final amount of tax confirmed by the competent tax authorities for each ship in the previous tax year. The amount of grant is going to be paid in an annual basis and the measure is expected to be effective for four years.

The relative procedures are defined by Circular 1222/10-10-2014. More analytically, for the calculation and payment of voluntary grant, shipping companies shall fill and submit, in duplicate, to the Tax Administration the "Declaration of Voluntary Grant of the Maritime Community payment" form. The deadline of the submission was defined by the last working day of January of each year.

The payment of grant shall be executed until the end of June each year, after the issuance of a liability identity by the Shipping Tax Authority. Exceptionally for the year 2014, the declaration filing and grant payment will take place until 31/10/2014.

To sum up, shipping companies shall integrate the voluntary grant in their financial and tax planning. Additionally, the accounting departments should pay special attention to deadlines for declaration and other necessary documents submission.