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A bill of the Ministry of Finance, which will be submitted to parliament on Monday, provides for the express opening of bank accounts of taxpayers under investigation for tax evasion and money laundering, as well as e-blocking of bank accounts of debtors to the state.

Provisions of the bill will put an end to delays and obstacles that exist today in terms of lifting of bank secrecy and allow the connection of tax audits services with banks. Banks will be required to respond immediately, within 24 hours, to electronically submitted requests by auditors for the opening of bank accounts of taxpayers under investigation. Thus, the mechanism of control will have a quicker access to bank accounts of those suspected of tax evasion, corruption, transportation and money laundering, as well as illegal enrichment.

The bill

The plan will be activated by the end of the month with the introduction of the Central Bank Registry, which will link information systems of examiners with banks. All systems of the Office for Combating Economic Crimes, tax authorities and control offices for inspection of bank accounts of taxpayers will be submitted to banks electronically. Banks will be required to respond by the next day and send all data requested electronically. Thus, cross-checking of data and tax audit will be carried out more quickly.

So far, the Office for Combating Economic Crimes has requested the opening of more than 5,000 bank accounts, but not even half of these accounts have been opened. Representatives of the Office accused banks of reluctance and negligence in terms of requests. According to them, the opening of bank accounts of people who are inspected for tax evasion and economic crimes may take between 8 and 12 months.

In the second stage, the electronic communication between services of the Ministry of Finance and banks will allow the monitoring of movements of bank accounts of all taxpayers in real time, so that transfers of suspicious significant amounts could be checked immediately at any time.

Electronic deposits

Electronic deposits will come along with the immediate lifting of bank secrecy. The Ministry of Finance will use the means of new technologies for the transfer of deposits of debtors to the state to third parties or credit institutions. All orders for blocking of accounts or assets for the benefit of third parties will be carried out electronically. Thus, the Ministry of Finance is seeking to restrict the blocking procedure and mainly protect interests of the Greek state.

According to legislation, blocking of salaries, pensions and social security benefits will not be permitted, if the amount is up to 1,000 euro per month after the deduction of mandatory contributions. That is, if the salary exceeds the amount of 1,000 euro, including cases in which the debtor receives a salary from more than one institution, the total amount will be taken into account and blocking of 25% of it will be permitted, but the remainder cannot be less than 1,000 per month.

Interest on deposits

By Monday, a provision is expected to be submitted to Parliament that will set the mandatory entry in tax declarations of interest incomes on deposits for amounts exceeding 250 euro. The need for a change in the law for interest incomes exceeding 250 euro will delay the submission of this year's tax returns, which will probably happen by the end of July. Reportedly, big banks have sent to the Ministry of Finance an electronic archive containing data of 900,000 taxpayers who have interests exceeding 250 euro. The four largest banks hold 90% of deposits with interests exceeding that amount.

Moreover, by the end of the month, orders of tax authorities for the implementation of tax checks will be launched electronically. In this way, procedures will be accelerated, the time needed to inform both inspectors and inspected will be reduced, and, in parallel, greater transparency will be provided. All inspection data will be published electronically.