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The popular Greek island Mykonos was announced a tax crimes heaven after the Ministry of Finance has found out that an entrepreneur from the island owes almost four million euros of unpaid taxes. The inspection of the local tax offices showed that the owner of the Nammos club (Νάμμος) must repay € 3,970,000 for the fiscal 2007 and 2008. The amount still hangs as a liability and not a euro is paid up to now.  

The news of the huge liability of a single taxpayer comes at a time when Greece is fighting for its financial survival. According to latest data provided by the Ministry of Finance revenue growth in the first half of the year is 7.2 %, while its value planned in the memorandum of financial assistance is 13.7%. This leads to a negative difference of almost € 1.5 billion planned revenue that the government failed to collect from the beginning of the year. The ministry reported that the difference may be covered by additional cuts in public expenditure, offering a “rescue parachute” of around four billion euros for the same period. Nevertheless the mission of the IMF, the European Commission and the ECB insists state revenues to cover the levels planned in the contract for financial aid.

Cases like the Nammos club in which individuals and/or companies owe millions of euros to the state treasury make the society angry. You can hear very often in private conversations or in public places the same opinion of different people: “They cut wages and pensions, because they can not or do not want to collect the liabilities of the rich in the country.” Lack of sense of fairness and accountability in Greece is further stoking civil discontent and causes frequent public unrest in the country.

At the same time reports of unfair payers and hidden taxes continue to bombard the mass media. The General Secretariat of Information Systems at the Ministry of Finance reported that 279 people living in expensive neighborhoods (Syntagma, Homonym, Monastiraki and Kolonaki) in the city center overdue property taxes worth € 2.68 million. The Prime Minister George Papandreou very often has stated since the beginning of the government’s term in October 2009 that its aim is to create a new fair Greece, where everyone will perform their duties. Unfortunately, the public opinion is that impunity reigns in Greece, because of the fact that there is no case of a debtor sent to prison for unpaid taxes.