The Greek Council of State has ruled that the national tax authority may extend its audit timeframe for historical tax cases from five years to ten years when new evidence of fraud comes to light.
The Second Division of the supreme court issued decision number 365/2026, rejecting an appeal brought by a company facing Value Added Tax assessments, additional tax, and fines for the 2004 and 2005 tax years.
According to Greek legal news website dikastiko.gr, the core of the judicial dispute centered on when tax administrators first obtained documents revealing the tax violation.
Statute of limitations rules
Under standard Greek tax legislation, a general five-year statute of limitations applies to old tax cases. That deadline is extended to ten years if supplementary evidence emerges after the initial five-year window that authorities could not have discovered during their initial audit.
The judgment creates a crucial legal precedent for the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, known as AADE. The autonomous agency oversees tax collection and audit procedures across Greece, and officials can now apply the court's ruling to a series of pending tax cases involving historic liabilities.
In the case before the court, the appealing business cited five-year limitation rules and argued that tax authorities possessed the relevant information in a timely manner. The firm maintained that no new supplementary evidence existed to justify expanding the audit window.
Specialized audits for complex tax fraud
The Council of State rejected the company's arguments, ruling that the limitation period for Value Added Tax extends to ten years when subsequent audit reports expose fictitious invoices. The judges determined that an audit report compiled by SDOE, the Financial and Economic Crime Unit, constitutes valid supplementary evidence even if completed after the five-year limit expired.
SDOE operates as Greece's specialized financial investigations agency under the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The unit focuses on complex economic crimes, large-scale tax evasion, and financial fraud that standard tax inspections may not immediately detect.
The Council of State serves as the supreme administrative court of Greece, based in Athens. Its Second Division specifically handles tax and financial disputes, making its decisions binding legal guidance for lower administrative courts and state revenue authorities.
In its decision, the court explained that investigating complex tax infractions requires dedicated and specialized audit mechanisms. The judges concluded that fraudulent invoice schemes directly affect Value Added Tax calculations and cause substantial losses in public revenue, justifying the ten-year audit window whenever subsequent investigations yield documented evidence.
