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Victoria Mindova

The Ministry of Finance reconsidered once again its decisions and announced that it would change the rules introduced in 2010 concerning the collection of receipts by taxpayers. Last year, the Minister of Finance at that time George Papakonstantinou said that the citizens should justify their income by showing receipts for purchased goods and services used.

In February 2010 Papakonstantimu announced that those taxpayers who declare up to the non-taxable minimum of 12,000 euros should collect receipts worth at least 6 000 euros. The people who declare income above 12,000 euros should collect receipts worth 30% of the declared amount.

All citizens had the right to present receipts up to 15,000 euros to the tax officials and then, based on their income, they were entitled to refunding of part of the tax, which could reach 1,500 euro. It became clear after May, 2011 that the citizens have taken to heart the measure with the collection of receipts. The last press conference of George Papakonstantinou as Minister of Finance revealed that four of every ten taxpayers were refunded part of the tax paid during the fiscal 2010. If the measure of tax refunding on the receipts collected was not applied, the increase in the state treasury could reach one billion euros, recognized Papakonstantinou sadly. According to the latest data, the Ministry of Finance has refunded about 700 million euros to hundreds of thousands taxpayers.

For this reason, the Greeks will be required to continue to collect receipts next year to show what they spent their money for, but there will be no incentive for tax refunding. Meanwhile, the economic experts of the government are preparing the new tax law. It will include another increase in excise duty on fuel and soft drinks, increase in VAT on restaurant services, in property tax and road tax, and will introduce an additional income tax.

GRReporter asked the taxpayers what they think of the change of the course in tax policy, especially at a time when the government continues to impose new special taxes, not reducing the budget spending but cutting the incentive for the 10% refunding of the amount of collected receipts.

"I did not know that they will cancel the measure for refunding of some of the tax based on the collected receipts. It is too bad," said the 32-year-old Maria, who works at an insurance company. Last year, she has collected over 6,000 euros in receipts and based on her annual income she is entitled to tax refunding of 531 euros for 2010. Maria said that the measure is correct, but is applied in the wrong direction. "There should be incentives for taxpayers. They want to collect more money into the treasury instead of focusing on the reduction of tax evasion by small retailers." This too should be the goal of collecting receipts and the revenues gap should be filled by cutting the costs in the budget, not by robbing the last cent from the pockets of ordinary citizens, said the young woman.
 
"I will continue to collect receipts this year too, although they cancelled the refunding of part of the tax, because everything changes in this country. I do not approve the change, but there is nothing I can do now," said the 34-year-old Andigoni, who collected receipts for about 16,000 euros together with her husband. According to their calculations, they are entitled to tax refunding of about 1,500 and plan to spend the money for a holiday. "If they cancel the measure officially, I think many people will stop collecting receipts for every small purchase they make. Moreover, the higher taxes will cause the failure of many merchants and then their revenues (of the government) will again be lower than expected." She explained that the procedure itself on the collection of receipts during the year is extremely annoying. "You are collecting loose notes, looking for a particular place, then you are counting them each month, calculating their total value and grouping them." When the time comes to submit them with the income-tax return, you check them again and if by some chance it turns out that the tax number of the trader is deleted, you have to take this receipt out of  the pile of calculated receipts because it is invalid and calculate the tax amount again.

"I collected receipts last year but I do not do it this year," said Anna, who is a shopseller. She said that the customers do not take their receipts in most cases, despite the minister's decision, because the people generally do not believe that the measure has a real contribution to fighting tax evasion. "Even if I collect the receipts, I can never collect enough to have a tax refund." She added that her mother, who is self-employed, is entitled to a tax refund in the amount of about 1,000 euros. However, the money returns to the state again because her mother has deferred payments due the increase in social securities and other charges and the money will cover these payments. "I do not collect receipts, because I do not make big purchases any longer. My costs are two to five euros for coffee and pastry daily and I should collect thousands of receipts to collect 6,000 euros in receipts not to be taxed. Finally, however, they always find a way to get their money back."