ΓΣΕΒΕΕ: the proposed taxation system is of a collection nature

General Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Traders of Greece (ΓΣΕΒΕΕ) spoke out against the presumptive calculation of income at a hearing in the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives during the discussion of the bill of the Ministry of Economy and Finance entitled: “Measures to combat tax evasion.”

“ΓΣΕΒΕΕ cannot agree with any system of presumptive (hypothetical) calculation of income, especially received from business activities, and calls for the withdrawal of relevant regulations,” noted in the resolution issued by the confederation.

As emphasized ΓΣΕΒΕΕ, “The discussion and processing of the bill of the Ministry of Economy and Finance is yet another bill, the consideration and processing of which by the competent committee of parliament takes place within the framework of a stifling schedule that leaves little room for making significant amendments or additions. We have repeatedly noted that the consideration, discussion and voting of laws fast track process does not strengthen our institutions and democracy, and does not help to identify any weaknesses that the bill may contain. Moreover, the time for public consultations is also limited, given that by the time each bill is posted on the public consultation website, the government spends more than twice times more time for its processing, in which, unfortunately, not all interested parties participate.”

“The above cannot be called elements of high-quality lawmaking, and these are the key reasons why a very large part of the legislation is ultimately not implemented, usually because it goes beyond the scope and capabilities of the subjects of implementation.”

According to ΓΣΕΒΕΕthe problem of tax evasion is complex. “However, the state has never engaged in a broad and comprehensive dialogue to clarify all aspects of the problem, its consequences and causes, with a view to introducing policies that would truly limit it and at the same time would be characterized by an element of justice. More often than not, when the state decides to fight tax evasion, it adopts a one-dimensional and myopic policy based on the logic of pure revenue extraction.In other words, the state tacitly admits that it cannot or does not want to fight tax evasion in all its manifestations and chooses the practice of indirect and horizontal taxation, which is almost always applied to the same social groups that are largely the weakest.

“The presumptive method for calculating the income of freelancers, defined in Articles 12, 13 and 15-20 of the bill, are the standards purely collection nature during a period of increasing government revenues. Their collective dimension appears on the income side, as a way to replace payments for benefits, and on the expenditure side, as a way to limit them, since with an artificial increase, the income of self-employed beneficiaries of social benefits potentially becomes reduced. The simplest calculations made to assess the impact of relevant regulations on government revenues and expenditures are another presumption of the logic of collecting measures, given that no other impact from their possible application was taken into account. In addition, the logic of collecting the rules under consideration follows from the fact that the claim fee is reduced by 50% only for enterprises and specialists falling under the conditional taxation system,” they note. ΓΣΕΒΕΕ.

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