Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2019

S. 221. Introduction

During the years of the Greek financial crisis, a number of extraordinary levies were enacted, in order to increase tax revenue to address the needs of the state expenditure. The legislation adopted and providing for such extraordinary levies, avoided, in many cases, characterizing those levies as “taxes”. Two characteristic examples of such levies are (i) the special, one-off social responsibility contribution, provided in article 5 of Law 3845/2010, that was imposed on the income of legal entities pertaining to fiscal year 2010 and (ii) the special solidarity contribution that was imposed on the total income of individuals, if it exceeded 12.000 euros, in 2011 (for income arising in the tax year 2010), by article 29 of law 3986/2011.

The special, one-off social responsibility contribution provided for in article 5 of Law 3845/2010, was imposed on the total net taxable income for the year 2010 that was acquired by legal entities subject to corporate income tax. The basis of the assessment was the same as the one used for the imposition of the normal corporate income tax for the same year. The contribution was imposed on legal entities that reported total net income (...