The Greek Cabinet is placing the taxation of multinational corporations and cryptocurrencies at the forefront of its agenda, as the government prepares to align national legislation with new European Union directives aimed at strengthening tax transparency and cooperation across member states.
At today’s Cabinet meeting, Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis will present legislative proposals to incorporate EU Directives 2023/2226 and 2025/872 into Greek law. These directives establish a common European framework for exchanging tax-related information on digital assets and multinational enterprises, marking a significant step toward harmonizing tax practices in an increasingly digitalized global economy.
Directive 2023/2226 introduces a comprehensive system for the exchange of information concerning crypto-assets, digital currencies, and transactions conducted through emerging financial technologies. It is the first European initiative to fully integrate cryptocurrencies into the continent’s tax transparency framework, seeking to prevent tax evasion and money laundering linked to digital assets.
The directive is based on the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which has been endorsed by the G20. It mandates the automatic exchange of information between EU tax authorities regarding transactions in digital assets. This unified approach will enable European governments to identify and monitor taxable income generated from crypto activity, requiring member states to collect and verify data from cryptocurrency service providers.
In addition to digital assets, the directive expands information exchange to include electronic money, non-custodial dividends, and capital gains, and makes the inclusion of a taxpayer’s identification number mandatory in all relevant filings and cross-border data exchanges. It also extends automatic information sharing to tax rulings concerning individuals, significantly limiting opportunities for tax avoidance.
By adopting these rules, the European Union is adapting its tax systems to the fast-evolving digital economy. The integration of Directive 2023/2226 into Greek law is expected to enhance the capacity of the country’s tax authorities to trace capital flows and ensure fair taxation for both individuals and corporations active in the digital sector.
Directive 2025/872 complements this framework by focusing on the taxation of multinational companies. It forms part of the OECD/G20’s Pillar Two initiative to combat base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), a global effort to ensure that large corporations pay a fair share of taxes regardless of where they operate.
Under this directive, EU member states will automatically exchange information related to the GloBE (Global Anti-Base Erosion) Information Returns of multinational groups. This will give tax administrations access to key data on company structures, subsidiaries, profits, and tax liabilities, helping them identify inconsistencies and aggressive tax planning.
The directive also introduces a standardized reporting template for all EU countries, streamlining the assessment of compliance with the global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent. It sets clear deadlines for the submission and exchange of information to ensure coordinated oversight across jurisdictions.
The GloBE information exchange system is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2026, enabling European authorities to monitor multinational tax compliance more effectively and to minimize the risks of double or incomplete tax reporting.
Together, these two directives signal a major shift toward a more transparent and cohesive European tax environment—one that reflects the realities of the digital era and the global nature of modern corporate operations.
