Calamos Supports Greece
GreekReporter.comGreek NewsCrimeGreek Tax Debtors Won't Pay Fines

Greek Tax Debtors Won't Pay Fines

Greece's plans to jail tax cheats have gone nowhere
Greece’s plans to jail tax cheats have gone nowhere

As Greece continues to go after workers, pensioners and the poor to pay for a crushing economic crisis while tax cheats largely escape prosecution, the country is also losing money by failing to collect more than 95 percent of fines imposed on taxpayers by administrative courts, despite beefed-up tax laws.
Finance Ministry data show that the fines imposed for tax cases add up to 14 billion euros, ($18.12 billion) or 7.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This concerns fines imposed by the ministry’s Taxis Net monitoring mechanism but which were disputed by taxpayers and ended up in court. The tax collection mechanism, however, has only managed to collect 688.5 million euros, ($889.11 million) or 4.91 percent of the total.
Notably, the 14 billion figure includes a 4.8-billion-euro fine ($6.21 billion) on the Acropolis stock brokerage firm which ignored the court order without punishment. Not even the 10 percent that should be paid ahead of referring the case to courts has been collected to date as tax debtors continue to thumb their noses at the government.
According to the detailed data published by the General Secretariat for Information Systems on its website, outstanding tax cases amount to 117,382. This is certainly a major improvement on the 180,935 cases that were pending a year ago. Out of these 117,382 cases, 106,672 are at the court of first instance, 9,410 are in the appeals phase and 1,300 are at the Council of State, the country’s top administrative court.
The ministry’s aim was to meet the country’s obligations as outlined in the memorandum with its creditors by reducing the number of outstanding cases by 80 percent by the end of the year. It is, however, becoming increasingly clear that this target cannot be met.
Still, General Secretariat for Public Revenues officials argue that the new system for the administrative resolution of tax issues, expected to come into force on August 1, will considerably reduce the number of taxpayers resorting to courts.
Taxpayers disputing taxes, levies or fines will apply at tax or customs authorities for a review. Each case will be forwarded within seven days to the Internal Review Agency of the General Secretariat for Public Revenues, which will examine claims and issue a verdict within an estimated total of 30 days.

See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!



Related Posts