May 5, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

The truth about the effect of Spain-Portugal VAT cuts and why the Greek government won’t do it

The Mitsotakis government said the VAT cut would not lower food prices, and that Spain and Portugal, which did so, did not gain anything. But is it?

In Portugal, after the zero VAT, food inflation fell from 22% to 9.2%. The country is currently ranked third in EU (bottom) by food inflation. In Spain, food inflation fell from 16.7% to 11.9%.

Thus, these results show that a VAT reduction would be beneficial and beneficial for the Greek society as well. However, this measure was not applied in Greece. The reason why VAT has not been reduced or zeroed out, like other taxes such as the Special Tax on Fuel, is very simple. Due to inflation and rising fuel prices, they generate too much revenue and, worse, generate revenue that the tax authorities don’t even need to lift a finger to generate.

Because everyone, whether rich or poor, will be forced to buy food and pour fuel into his car. This means that everyone will automatically pay taxes to the state, whether they like it or not. This is how the Mitsotakis government was able to present surplus in the amount of 2 billionwhich became one of the main pre-election achievements of the New Democracy before the elections.

Because the The European Commission calls To cancellation of subsidies after electionsit is considered certain and certain that the same tactics will be used, as the prices of gas and oil products (and hence food) will remain high for many more years, and thus the next government will be able to present the surplus called for by the commission .

Given the massive tax evasion, the authorities most likely considered such a solution to be the best. However, in this case we are talking about money that citizens will immediately give to the state and, of course, without any installments and agreements. So why won’t VAT or excise be reduced?

In principle, they will never be lowered as long as the memorandum is in effect. That is, until the sun goes out…





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