Galery

1

Greeks have the worst opinion of their tax system and many of them find it difficult, unreliable, inefficient, non-transparent and socially unjust.

According to the results of research conducted within the 2^nd Panhellenic Scientific Congress of the Institute for Financial and Tax Analysis, nine out of ten taxpayers declare that the tax system in Greece is not stable at all, and eight out of ten say it is unreliable and socially unjust. Also, 74 percent of respondents have answered that the tax system is inefficient, 71.4 percent – that it is non-transparent, and 84.4 percent – that it does not favour competitiveness.

Thus, the majority of respondents believe that the current tax system does not have, or it has, but only to a very small degree, the necessary characteristics to be fair and effective.

Noteworthy is the fact that the results from the mentioned poll conducted a few weeks ago, which  involved 770 businessmen, economists, accountants, tax advisors, etc. from all over Greece, sent a powerful message to the political leadership of the Ministry of Finance to carry out changes now, given the development of a new national tax system.

According to the findings of the survey, 93.5 percent of respondents have answered that the existing tax system cannot attract investment capital from abroad and 83 percent have said that the current tax system does not favour the creation of new companies, nor does it facilitate the development of existing ones.

Moreover, during the 2nd Congress of the Institute for Financial and Tax Analysis its director Christos Giannopoulos made an important revelation, by saying that for one and a half years the Ministry of Finance has not issued the relevant decisions to resolve the electronic control over transactions for companies from 2010 and 2011. This means that the authorities cannot prevent the issuance and acceptance of fake and virtual invoices.

Art. 20 H. 3842/2010, passed by parliament and published in the Official Gazette in April 2010, provides that transactions issued between companies and dealers shall be transmitted electronically in the database of the Chief Secretariat for Information Systems at the Ministry of Finance. In order to do this a decision is required by the Finance Minister, which will determine the timing and manner of gradual implementation of the above procedure, based on transaction value or turnover, technical standards for data transmission, deadlines for submission, ways of confirmation and all other details needed to implement the measure. These decisions have still not been signed by Christos Giannopoulos.

Economic police will catch the big fish

Meanwhile it became clear that arrest threatens the owners/managers of companies who have not submitted to the tax office at least one current VAT return for the tax, and whose outstanding liabilities have exceeded 75 thousand Euros.

According to information the list has already been prepared and soon inspections will begin in 12,558 large enterprises with annual turnover exceeding 100,000 Euros.

These are companies which this year have not filed a current VAT return in the tax services. In particular, after the targeted detection of available data in recent months by the General Secretariat for Information Systems at the Ministry of Finance, the list was drawn up and sent to the Department for Combating Economic Crimes. All companies which in 2010 had turnover exceeding 100,000 Euros were checked. Subsequently it was examined which of them had filed tax returns last year and how many of them have not submitted any current declaration in 2011.

After detection of the available data, requested by the Economic Police, a list was prepared of 12,558 companies which have not submitted any current VAT return this year.

Detailed checks have already started. It is likely, as shared by sources from the inspecting authorities, that owners or managers from these firms be retained, provided that the outstanding obligations exceed 75,000 Euros and that in the meantime they have not settled their tax obligations.

It should be noted that most companies (2,877), which were caught having ... "forgotten" to declare their VAT, are located in the Central Macedonia Region.

Next comes the Attica region with 2,108 companies and ​​Crete with 1,105 companies. The fewest companies not having filed current tax returns - 217 - were found in the region of the North Aegean Sea.

In addition to VAT, furthermore, it is believed that soon the first rapid procedure arrests will be carried out for arrears to the state. Economy prosecutor Grigoris Peponis already has in his hands the black list of 14,700 persons and entities with arrears totalling 37 billion Euros.