Investment projects, which are subject to the aid schemes of the Development Law, should have the character of an initial investment.
Investment projects must also meet one of the following conditions:
- creation of a new plant,
- expansion of the capacity of an existing plant,
- diversification of the production of a plant into products or services that have never been produced in the plant. It is a condition that the eligible costs exceed the book value of the assets being re-used by at least 200 %. This on the basis of a record in the financial year preceding the start of operations of the investment project, or
- a fundamental change in the entire production process of an existing plant. A condition for large enterprises is that the aided expenditure must exceed depreciation in the three previous tax years. Account is taken of those assets which are linked to the activity to be modernized. If the depreciation linked to the activity is not clearly shown, the condition laid down in this provision is not met.
The Development Law supports investment projects that can receive aid for eligible costs:
a. Regional aid for initial investment, either alone or in combination with non-regional aid under the other parts of the General Exemption Regulation
b. Exclusively non-regional aid from the other parts of the General Exemption Regulation and other European Union Regulations
The new Development Law is intended to support investment projects under some of its schemes with aid rates based on the intensities of the new Regional Aid Map.
The maximum amount is €1.000.000 for which projects are not subjected to the initial investment character. Such investment projects may be eligible for the full amount of the incentives, if they concern micro/small enterprises.
Types of incentives
For medium-sized and large enterprises the aid includes the following incentives.
(a) tax exemption
(b) the leasing subsidy
(c) the subsidization of the cost of the employment created
Beneficiaries
Beneficiaries of aid under the schemes of this Development Law are enterprises which are established or have a branch in the Greek territory at the time of the start of operations of the investment project and which have one of the following forms:
a. A trading company,
b. A cooperative,
c. Social Cooperative Enterprises (SSEs), Agricultural Cooperatives (AS), Producer Groups (POs), Urban Cooperatives, Agricultural Corporate Partnerships (ACPs),
d. Companies under establishment or under merging, with the obligation to have completed the publicity procedures before the start of work on the investment project,
e. Joint ventures engaged in trading activities,
f. Public and municipal enterprises and their affiliated companies, provided that:
- they are not entrusted with a public purpose,
- they are not exclusively entrusted by the State with the provision of services,
- their operation is not subsidised by public funds for the period during which they are discharging long-term liabilities
The following shall apply to the supported investment projects:
1. Entities whose investment projects are subject to this Regulation shall maintain, from the time the investment project starts operations, a double-entry accounting system or a simple accounting system for investment projects whose eligible costs do not exceed three hundred thousand (300,000) euros, as well as separate accounting monitoring of the figures related to the implementation of the project and the terms of the decision of affiliation. The decisions of the call may specify additional accounting records and other obligations that investment project promoters must keep in a double-entry bookkeeping system, as well as the cases in which investment project promoters must keep a double-entry bookkeeping system before applying for eligibility.
2. A period of compliance with long-term obligations of the operators after the completion of the investment project and certification of the start of its productive operation is set as follows: three (3) years from the date of completion of the investment project for micro and small enterprises, four (4) years for medium-sized enterprises and five (5) years for large enterprises. In the case of leasing, the above period is extended for as many additional years as the duration of the leasing contract.