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Greeks consider the introduction of a tax card a failure

03 October 2011 / 16:10:49  GRReporter
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Almost all the citizens we managed to talk to share the same concern. "The tax number of every citizen in Greece is used for all activities related to the public administration and financial system in the country. If the name, surname and tax number fall into the wrong hands, there is always the chance that we can become victims of fraud, “said a 32-year-old insurance company employee. She also believes that this is a half-way measure, and instead of forcing the tax services to start carrying out serious inspections of the Greek enterprises and traders, the government wants to make the people take on the role of inspectors. The young woman is adamant that she will not acquire a tax card for the moment because she believes that this measure will be short-lived and she suggests that it will soon be revoked due to its ineffectiveness.

A similar comment was made on the new card by a young fitness instructor. "If they make me, I will have a tax card, but since the law is not yet in force I will not take the trouble of running to the bank just to do the government a favour," said the young man. In his opinion, the measure is a complete failure, or just another way of spending money in vain in difficult times and of withdrawing money from ordinary people. "They say it is free, but someone still pays for it. Where does this money come from? Are they cutting pensions and salaries in order to issue cards to help them impose even higher taxes on us?" he asked rhetorically.

The only one who was in favour of holding the tax card was a bartender in a metropolitan establishment. He, however, drew attention to another difficulty of the next "innovation" of the Greek government. "I have no problem with the idea of submitting my personal data to obtain a tax card. It will be even better for me – it will make it easier for me to calculate and count fewer receipts, when the time for the tax return comes. However, what about my grandmother in the village, who has two properties and still has to file a tax return?" he said with obvious irony. Sending an SMS is an impossible mission for most elderly citizens and a fair number of people do not know how to use the Internet. The Directorate General "Information" at the Ministry of Finance has provided only these two ways of activating the tax card. Furthermore, it will be useless in villages, small towns and some islands, because there are no POS devices there.

 

Tags: EconomyMarketsTax cardPersonal dataGreeceFraudsReveueBudget
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