greece tax evasion swimming pools

mps._queue.adview = mps._queue.adview || []; if (isOneTrustAnyBlocked()) { For years, economists have pointed to rampant tax evasion as one of the countrys most serious problems, depriving the government of money it badly needs. const EEA_REGION_COUNTRY_CODES = ['AT', 'BE', 'BG', 'HR', 'CY', 'CZ', 'DK', 'EE', 'FI', 'FR', 'DE', 'GR', 'HU', 'IS', 'IE', 'IT', 'LV', 'LI', 'LT', 'LU', 'MT', 'NL', 'NO', 'PL', 'PT', 'RO', 'SK', 'SI', 'ES', 'SE', 'CH', 'TR', 'GB']; And who are these rich? Accountants say efforts to overhaul the tax code also have failed. Efforts to overhaul the tax system, many accountants say, have created such a confusing jumble of laws that it will take months, if not years, to understand them. That kind of wholesale lying about assets, and other eye-popping cases that are surfacing in the news media here, points to the staggering breadth of tax dodging that has long been a way of life here. var _regex = /([^=&/<>()[].,;:s@"]+(.[^=&/<>()[].,;:s@"]+)*)@(([[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}])|(([a-zA-Z-0-9]+. } It has to do with the economy's structure, the high number of self-employed workers, the small average size of companies. mps._debug('[MPS]: email address detected in url, bypass gpt. All Rights Reserved. The partners goal was to refurbish the yacht and restore its past glory, so they could charter it profitably. This is asummary of the basic results. For 2015 it was calculated to make up around 22.4% of Greece's GDP which, in absolute numbers, comes out to about40 billion. ENFIA Tax - Ownership Related Costs in Greece - ARENCORES Such incomes defy belief, said Ilias Plaskovitis, the general secretary of the Finance Ministry, who has been in charge of revamping the country's tax laws. Greeks Hide Swimming Pools, Income in Rampant Tax Dodges Why arent they going after the big fish? he asked. "We expect it to pass as we have the required majority.". "host" : 'mps.cnbc.com', European markets ticked lower as the Greek drama continued on Thursday, and Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at foreign exchange firm OANDA, said in a note that focus was now on whether the gaps between lenders could be bridged. sites. Our forum rules are detailed in the Community Guidelines. Officials apparently have no record of the other 103 firms or whether the owners declared any assets held by these entities or paid taxes on them. if (document.cookie.length > 0) { Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York Times. var d = new Date(); In any case, though, the wise thing to do is hire a professional to handle your cases. Taxmen Have Little Clue of Offshore Companies Owned by Greeks Entire professions were allowed to file a set income. But he said that he was also confronting a resistant bureaucracy. 'path' : '/id/100875192' , Municipal workers and school teachers have taken to the streets of Athens since Monday to protest against the layoffs. Why arent they going after the big fish?. The eyes of the international community have been fixed on Greece for some time now, and today they requested a $40 billion bailout from the EU and the IMF. It is clear that this complexity makes operating the tax collection mechanism exceptionally difficult. The request is expected to be approved by the IMF, the newspaper said. Tax evasion in Greece is a difficult, structural problem of the Greek economy. To add to the drama, a former Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, was accused of deleting the names of his relatives when he first got the Lagarde list. Soon, customers annoyed by the holiday disruption confronted them. ICIJ reporters cross-checked the information with the list of 107 offshore companies identified in the ICIJ data and found that only four entities in the BVI had been cleared with Greek tax authorities. Got a confidential news tip? For most cases of owners who have to pay property taxes in Halkidiki, only ENFIA applies, and the amounts are relatively low for the area. d.setTime(d.getTime() + 60 * 60 * 24 * 30 * 1000); }; Many Greeks say tax collectors have a reputation for being among the easiest officials to bribe. Indirect taxes are considered more unjust because they affect the rich and the poor equally. Some of the shareholders of the offshore company were managers of ISI: David Adams, Johan Boskemper, Gerhard Mazenier, Heinz Winter and David Tham. On Friday, Greece is due to pay the IMF 300 million euros ($335 million)a payment that has looked increasingly unlikely as talks drag on, Greece's money runs out and a final tranche of bailout aid remains out of reach. function getOneTrustCookie() { But perhaps as troublesome, some experts say, is the growing grass-roots anger that led the customers to turn against the four tax inspectors recently in Archanes. For companies, a capital gain adds to regular income and is taxable at the same rate as regular income. Anyone can read what you share. Charter prices start at $60,000 a day for a small group. STORAGE: 6, After learning aboutICIJ's findings, the Greek Finance Ministry said it would examine the data and determine whether there'sany evidence of improper or illegal conduct byowners of offshore companies. Indicatively, a 10% increase in GDP could raise tax revenues by 11.3%. Hopefullythere is room for further steps. console.log('PUB-GDPR-CHECK all blocked. As austerity measures and riots have garnered unwelcome international attention, Greece has become known as a worst-case example of the toll of the 2008 economic meltdown and the dangers of fiscal irresponsibility. if (typeof(window._mpspixZ) != 'string') { CONTENT_SELECTION_AND_MEASUREMENT: 7, 'cag[type_franchise]' : 'Europe News' , This is not true only in Greece tax evasion is a universal phenomenon. In the past, Greek authorities derided the countrys tax collectors as lazy and corrupt, blaming them for many of the problems with the system. var setAdblockerCookie = function(adblocker) { Until that point, he said, the existence of Greek-owned offshore entities was known only to a handful of law firms that had helped their clients set up the companies. In particular, attempts to cast a broad net have only fueled public anger at the wealthy, who are often seen as the main culprits. The exact scale of tax evasion in Greece is obviously unknown. It includes a series of undeclared hidden secret activities that range from smuggling, to private lessons, to casual restaurants that do not issue receipts. 'nid' : '100875192' mpsload.id = "mps-load"; "While both sides remain in disagreement over some key issues, progress does seem to be being made," he said in a note, but added that as there was still some way to go he "refused" to get too optimistic. Its not a conspiracy to get the small guy, he said. Mr. Plaskovitis said that tax collectors had already begun using technology to crosscheck claims and that they had taken steps like asking luxury car dealerships for list of their clients. But why doesnt the Greek state address the problem of tax evasion? The "rich" were bearing the countrys tax burden. Greece uses high-tech drones to fight tax evasion in holiday - Reuters A 2008 European Union report on Greece tax shortfalls found that between 2000 and 2007, the countrys average growth in nominal gross domestic product was 8.25 percent. }); var CNBC_Premium = CNBC_Premium || {}; Kanellopoulos said that in 1998 his team at the Finance Ministry discovered the shocking scale of Greek offshore interests 2,400 companies registered in tax havens in the Pacific and the English Channel. This is a very serious problem, because small businessescan more easily employ undeclared workers, avoiding tax and social security payments, while issuing fewer invoices and paying less VAT. They made Christina GP one of the partners. Two years later, he set up shop in one of the worlds most secretive offshore jurisdictions, the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. The document proposes hiking taxes on luxury items such as planes, helicopters, gliders and swimming polls to 13 percent from 10 percent. }); // execute This is incomethat, along with social security payments, insurance revenues, and loans from the European Union together must cover all state expenses. But he insisted that Greece's alternative proposals and ideas were the most viable. In the early days of the economic crisis here, Greek officials optimistically predicted that tax collection would soon improve. script.setAttribute("src", "//www.npttech.com/advertising.js"); But still, that feeling is out there.. Fitzpatrick and Harris did not respond to ICIJs requests for comment. Financial police inspectors found delinquency rates ranging from 50-100% during raids on major tourist resorts in Greece over the last month, including the cosmopolitan islands of Mykonos, Santorini, Zakynthos and Corfu, the Greek police revealed on Monday. Documents obtained by ICIJ reveal that the single shareholder behind the mysterious entity was Apostolos Vakakis, chairman of the retail conglomerate Jumbo SA, one of Greeces largest companies. 2023 The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. You can find the tax rates in Greece as of 2020 in the tables below: Capital Gains Tax For individuals, if the capital gain is from a sold real estate property, the tax will be at a flat rate of 15 percent. } SOCIAL_MEDIA: 8 They bragged of using aerial photographs to get tax evaders who failed to declare their swimming pools on tax returns as required. var CNBC_MPS_FRANCHISE_TAG='europe_news'; Nikolis Geniatakis, at his restaurant in Archanes, Greece. They are driving us crazy, but what about the Lagarde list? he said, referring to about 2,000 tax evasion suspects with Swiss bank accounts whose names were turned over to Greek officials in 2010. According to research by the Ministry of Labour, 27% of those working undeclared had asked theiremployers to allow it.

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