Europe’s stance in dealing with the tax reform in Greece is very hypocritical, French economist Thomas Piketty said in an interview to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Wednesday.
“On one hand, they say rich Greeks must pay more taxes and on the other, French and German banks gladly accept cash and bonds from Greece without sending the proper information to Greek authorities to help them tax it,” Piketty said on the sidelines of a conference on progressive economy.
“Even France and Germany are not able to tax large multinationals and big businesses as they should because they escape to Luxembourg. So how do we expect Greece to do it alone?” he asked.
The French economist argued the solution to this problem is European and includes setting a common tax rate on companies over a certain size and exchanging information automatically.
He also said that “the only sure thing” is that a Grexit has to be avoided because this would destroy the Eurozone and lead to an even greater lack of confidence.
Asked to comment about the ongoing negotiations, Piketty said that the Greek government has to make it clear that the debt haircut is not only proposed for Greece, but for other European states as well. “I believe it is necessary to recognize that a Greek debt haircut will take place, but not just for Greece. There is no solution exclusively for Greece’s problem. There has to be a joint solution,” he added.
(source: ana-mpa)
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