Big Shakeup In Greek Tax Departments

Under pressure from its international lenders to do something about tax cheats, the Greek government announced a major shakeup of its tax offices, with 164 directors, deputy directors and Finance Ministry observers being moved to different departments as part of efforts to improve tax collection.
Some of the directors will retain their positions but be moved to different departments, while others will be demoted. Twenty new officials will be hired to take up positions at the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) and other bodies that carry out inspections. Among those being moved is SDOE’s head of operational planning, Nikos Lekkas, sources said.
The newspaper Kathimerini reported that some of the staff who will be affected by the move have threatened to take legal action against the ministry and claim that an evaluation process has to be completed before the government can change their positions.
With only days to go in the calendar year, the Finance Ministry had decided to require taxpayers to submit receipts with their tax returns next year or face a tax surcharge, which means people who weren’t collecting receipts all this year face another big hit. Greeks will have to collect receipts worth 25 percent of their gross income.
If they fail to do so, they will face a further tax of 22 percent on the difference between what they collect and the target set by the Finance Ministry. For example, someone earning 30,000 euros a year will have to gather 7,500 euros in receipts. If they gather 5,000 euros, they will be taxed 22 percent of 2,500, which is 550 euros.
The Finance Ministry also got a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court which ruled that an emergency property tax introduced in 2011 could still be levied via electricity bills. Judges accepted the government’s appeal against a first instance court ruling that the Public Power Corporation could not collect the tax, following complaints by consumer groups.
The government said the tax is vital to the government’s revenue targets and having to collect it via another method would have disrupted its fiscal efforts, although critics said some big businesses are paying a much lower rate or have been exempted.
Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras directed the utility to ignore it and keep collecting the money. The tax was first imposed as a one-time emergency measure last year when current PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos was finance minister but now seems to be permanent, along with a doubling of income taxes and taxes on the poor.