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One fifth of registered companies have paid new levy
By Natalie Hami
JUST OVER 38,000 companies scrambled to pay the new €350 corporate levy by Monday’s midnight deadline, boosting state coffers by €19 million, according to Registrar of Companies Spyros Kokkinos.
The special levy was passed in Parliament in August as part of the government’s austerity measures and was originally expected to bring in €70 million.
According to Kokkinos, by 9.30am yesterday 38,060 companies had paid the new levy and been processed, bringing the new total to 55,844, from a total of 250,000 companies on the register. “Quite a few companies that have paid in the last 15 days have not been processed yet so the number that we’ve given - 38,060 – does not include the companies that have been processed and will be done so in the next few days,” said Kokkinos.
In addition, around 29,650 companies sent letters to the department informing them that their company was no longer active or that they did not have property. Companies that have property in the occupied areas are exempt from the levy. Concerning companies that have not paid up, Kokkinos said they would be removed from the register, but not struck off.
“The law includes those companies that will not pay by June 2012, it does not refer to or include companies that did not pay by December 2011, therefore the penalty will simply be removing them from the register and a company that has been left off the register will pay €500 to get back on the register,” said Kokkinos.
The Pancyprian Association of Small Businesses’ general secretary Sophocles Mousoulos declared the government’s decision to tax small businesses as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘wrong.’ “The majority of small businesses can’t pay this levy because they cannot even cover the instalments that they owe to the banks as the government unfortunately has forced the small business over the last two years to pay for the cost of the crisis, and it’s not the businesses that are at fault,” said Mousoulos.
He raised concerns that the payment of €350 did not take into consideration the profits and losses of a company.
“From some of our members it seems that about 30 per cent have not paid,” added Mousoulos, clarifying that a small business consisted of up to 49 members of staff.
JUST OVER 38,000 companies scrambled to pay the new €350 corporate levy by Monday’s midnight deadline, boosting state coffers by €19 million, according to Registrar of Companies Spyros Kokkinos.
The special levy was passed in Parliament in August as part of the government’s austerity measures and was originally expected to bring in €70 million.
According to Kokkinos, by 9.30am yesterday 38,060 companies had paid the new levy and been processed, bringing the new total to 55,844, from a total of 250,000 companies on the register. “Quite a few companies that have paid in the last 15 days have not been processed yet so the number that we’ve given - 38,060 – does not include the companies that have been processed and will be done so in the next few days,” said Kokkinos.
In addition, around 29,650 companies sent letters to the department informing them that their company was no longer active or that they did not have property. Companies that have property in the occupied areas are exempt from the levy. Concerning companies that have not paid up, Kokkinos said they would be removed from the register, but not struck off.
“The law includes those companies that will not pay by June 2012, it does not refer to or include companies that did not pay by December 2011, therefore the penalty will simply be removing them from the register and a company that has been left off the register will pay €500 to get back on the register,” said Kokkinos.
The Pancyprian Association of Small Businesses’ general secretary Sophocles Mousoulos declared the government’s decision to tax small businesses as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘wrong.’ “The majority of small businesses can’t pay this levy because they cannot even cover the instalments that they owe to the banks as the government unfortunately has forced the small business over the last two years to pay for the cost of the crisis, and it’s not the businesses that are at fault,” said Mousoulos.
He raised concerns that the payment of €350 did not take into consideration the profits and losses of a company.
“From some of our members it seems that about 30 per cent have not paid,” added Mousoulos, clarifying that a small business consisted of up to 49 members of staff.
Source: www.cyprus-mail.com
January 4th, 2012
January 4th, 2012