May 2, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Tax evasion: what measures the government introduces


One of the priorities of the economic headquarters of the government is to reduce tax evasion. The loss of income from tax theft is estimated at 10 billion euros, and the initial goal is to collect 50% of this amount.

The goal of the tax authorities is income, which freelancers underestimate, as well as expenses, which are inflated.

According to the reports, the measures under consideration are as follows:

  • Reducing the amount of the simplified tariff. Today, in order to facilitate transactions, there is a limit of up to 100 euros for the issuance of a simple invoice. In fact, businesses and professionals receive a retail sales receipt for transactions up to 100 euros, which makes it especially difficult to verify the authenticity of the transaction. According to the financial staff, the simplified invoice limit should be reduced by 50%, namely to 50 euros. Above this amount, regular thymologies will be billed.
  • At the same time, inAll invoices and receipts were “downloaded” into e-books. Otherwise, they will not be accepted by the tax office. This proposal will close the windows of unrealistic spending by businesses and professionals who use them simply to reduce taxable income. For example, today a professional can collect money from friends, acquaintances, etc. gas station receipts and use them to reduce his taxable income.
  • Gradual blocking of claimed data in MyDATA and VAT and E3 declarations. It is envisaged that income codes in both the VAT form and the E3 form will be blocked to limit tax evasion. But the project won’t stop with revenue codes alone.
  • Incentives for taxpayers to request receipts. The incentives set by the Treasury’s previous decision (double counting of some e-payments to doctors, etc., as well as tax breaks for e-payments to merchants, etc.) did not bring the expected results.
  • Digital invoice. Thus, the movement of products (construction, agricultural, etc.) is controlled. Regulatory authorities will know in real time what is being moved and where.
  • Modernization of the Tax Procedure Code. The Ministry of Finance has begun an inventory of regulations that, in addition to creating an unnecessary bureaucratic burden for businesses and professionals, encourage tax evasion.
  • Revision of fines for formal and material violations. Where necessary, fines will be increased and are expected to be expanded as some violations are currently no fines are imposed.
  • But there are suggestions for change in the procedure for taxation of the self-employed. Some of them support rate increases for professionals.

As previously suggested, the financial staff did not offer any other solutions, except for tightening checks, increasing the amount of fines and raising taxes. Similar solutions have been introduced before, and did not bring any noticeable result, except for more sophisticated tax evasion. The fact that there are other methods of increasing tax collection, in addition to punitive and tax increases, is probably not known in the Ministry of Finance.



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