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The Ministry of Finance announced another set of measures and initiatives in fighting the scourge of the Greek economy - tax evasion. Owners of expensive properties that have "forgotten" to pay their taxes in recent years got in the eye of the inspection hurricane this time and also those who declare a minimum annual income but enjoy big houses, villas, yachts and other luxuries.

The song that the Minister of Finance George Papakoinstantinu is singing is quite familiar, because the fight against tax unfairness has been widely promoted since the beginning of the mandate of the George Papandreou’s government more than 18 months ago. It turned out, however, that not much has been done.

The election slogan of the current Prime Minister of Greece was "There is money!" when the New Democracy officials acknowledged that the difficulties with the collection of budget revenues seem insurmountable. It appeared finally that there is money only in the planning accounts because the uncollected accounts receivable for 2009 reached almost 36 billion euros.

Therefore, the government took its eyes away from the smaller fish, i.e. traders and small shops that do not issue receipts, and headed to the big sharks. Tax officials will run not only after property owners, but after highly paid freelancers such as doctors (again), football players, lawyers, notaries and even singers who take huge fees but pay ridiculous taxes. The public sector will try to clear its accounts with its tenants too as they have not paid their obligations for quite some time. For example, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has given a substantial part of its real estate for rent, and there is almost no revenue from them.

To find the specific groups of individuals and entities that are at the heart of the problem of tax unfairness, the Ministry of Finance set up five working committees. They concluded that they must immediately make a tax audit of almost 10,000 people who own properties worth over one million euros each and have not paid the tax on their expensive properties for one or more years during the period 1997-2007. Other 17,000 large-scale traders, for which there are serious doubts that they fix their accounts and 150 individuals identified as risky in the eyes of the tax officials will be inspected in detail. The Ministry threatens and those who have acquired property, no matter large or small, in recent years, but did not declare them as required by law.

The controlling authorities have prepared special inspections for the debtors to the state who live abroad. It appears that the Greek tax officials have decided to become a tax Interpol and will chase local taxpayers abroad too. That sounds very ambitious, but it will become clear by year's end how much the plans can become reality.

All taxpayers who do not meet their tax obligations on time, social insurances or other public payments, but have expensive property on the islands of Santorini and Mykonos or business offices in the region of Attiki, should also be afraid of the tax authorities. This figure also includes the owners of expensive properties who owe the state more than 200,000 euros. 4117 owners of petrol stations that have not paid duty on the fuel traded in the last year should be prepared for the inspection too. Last but not least are the major distribution companies that work with the health system as well as suppliers of goods to large supermarkets.
 
Besides the obvious offenders, who have not paid their obligations to the state for years, the Ministry of Finance will make a tax inspection of 1150 of the largest companies and corporations in the country. Banks, insurance companies and producers with annual turnover exceeding 30 million euros as well as public companies on the Athens Stock Exchange with an annual turnover of 10 million euros according to 2009 data will be in the spotlight too.