Tax | Private Wealth

Our tax team has successfully represented an individual at court against the Greek tax authority. The Athens Administrative Court of Appeal annulled a tax assessment amounting to approximately 600,000 euros, adopting our judicial claims for the statute of limitation in case of re-examination. Our team was led by our tax Partner Aspasia Malliou supported by Dimitra Katsipi (Associate).

We are thrilled to announce that our tax team, led by Aspasia Malliou with the support of Maria Kilatou, senior associate, has successfully handled a landmark, within the Greek banking sector, tax dispute, related to the conversion of deferred tax assets (DTAs) to deferred tax credits (DTCs) against the Greek State, giving rise to a direct refund claim of a total amount of approx. €77M to a major Greek credit institution under special liquidation regime. Our tax team has supported the latter on initiating the special procedure, as provided under Article 27A of Greek Law 4172/2013, applicable on credit institutions, allowing for the conversion of DTAs to DTCs against the Greek State. Following, the submission of a special request, grounded on a complex legal and accounting argumentation, the Greek Tax Authorities assessed the request and audited the legal and accounting documentation, concluding that the credit institution is entitled to the direct refund of deferred tax credits of approx. €77M. The above pioneering outcome relating to a very new procedure for the conversion mechanism of DTAs to DTCs has a significant impact, as it creates a precedent for DTCs refunds in the whole banking sector.

We are delighted to announce that POTAMITISVEKRIS has been recognised by ITR (International Tax Review) World Tax 2023 as “Greece Tax Firm of the Year”.

This recognition would not have been possible without the high level of expertise and personal dedication of our Tax Partner Aspasia Malliou and the PV Tax team, as well as the support and trust of our clients.

The ceremony took place at ITRWorldTax2023 in London, U.K., on September 27, 2023.

POTAMITISVEKRIS supported a Greek department store for its acquisition by a listed holding company, a landmark transaction in Greek retail. Our team was comprised of partners: George Bersis, Vassilis Stergiou, Euripides Ioannou, Alexios Papastavrou, and Aspasia Malliou

The tax team of POTAMITISVEKRIS, led by Partner Aspasia Malliou and supported by associates Dimitra Katsipi and Haris Stamboulis, succeeded in obtaining a decision from the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal, according to which the general exemption from real estate tax, which applies to limited liability companies (article 15 paragraph 3 b of Law 3091/2002), also applies to shipping companies. The judgment in the above case is original, as there is no case-law precedent and upholds the exemption of the applicant shipping company from real estate tax of approximately EUR 1.300.000

Our tax team, led by Aspasia Malliou with the support of Senior associate Maria Kilatou, has succeeded in issuing twenty-one positive decisions before the Dispute Resolution Directorate Court, which mandated multi-million VAT refund related to rebates. In particular, our tax team successfully represented one of the top 10 leading pharmaceutical companies in the global pharma industry, handling a complex tax case related to VAT on rebates. The decisions of the Dispute Resolution Directorate are of great importance, since the VAT legislative treatment on rebates had created ambiguity among the pharmaceutical companies while the handling of the case required a sophisticated argumentation grounded on ECJ jurisprudence and landmark decisions, issued by Greek Courts, which our tax team was also the pioneer to achieve. Along with the legal argumentation, the cases were grounded on a strong accounting approach. The Dispute Resolution Directorate accepted the twenty-one administrative appeals and sent back the cases to the tax office to proceed with the VAT refunds. The above outcome has a significant impact, as it creates a precedent for VAT refunds in the whole pharma industry, as regards rebates, at the level of Greek tax administration, without proceeding to judicial recourses before the Greek Courts.

Aspasia Malliou, supported by associates Dimitra Katsipi and Charis Stampoulis, has succeeded in issuing nine decisions before the Council of State, which will lead to €2,77 million refund on real estate transfer tax for a leading credit institution of Cyprus. With its decisions, the Council of State upheld the judgment of all the Administrative Courts of First Instance of the country, which mandated the relevant tax refund.

George Bersis, Aspasia Malliou along with their teams advised leading Greek Real Estate Investment Company on the acquisition of four hyper-markets of total surface of 90.000 sqm. approximately, fully leased and operated by a big retailer, against the total purchase price of Euro 119,16 mio, in execution of a binding notarial pre-contract entered into by the sellers and the buyer in March 2019.

Aspasia Malliou and team successfully represented an insurance company before the Greek Supreme Administrative Court in overturning a judgement by the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal for €5m.

Aspasia Malliou and team successfully represented two individuals before the Greek Tax Authorities achieving the reduction of the primary assessment act of a tax audit to be reduced  from €30m to €1.3m in the first case and from €5.6m to €0.5m in the second case.

Aspasia Malliou and team successfully represented three individuals before the Greek Tax Authorities achieving the reduction of the primary assessment act of the tax audit from €2.8m to €0.6m in the first case, from €0.5m to €0.1m in the second case and €0.1m to €0.06m in the third case.