The Tax Service creates special forces units to combat tax evaders

Greece's Independent Directorate of State Revenue (AADE) announced on Friday the creation of a special forces combat unit to combat tax evasion.

By carrying out 500 checks daily, Greece aims to collect 65 billion euros. After establishing debtor's prisons and introducing prison terms for tax debtors into legislation, the Greek authorities decided to strengthen the forceful support of the tax service. AADE is planning large-scale audits in all sectors of the economy with the involvement of “special forces”, the purpose of which will be to identify tax evasion. At the same time, a new attempt is being made to collect overdue debts.

The action plan for this year reportedly calls for 170,385 checks across the entire spectrum of the economy, such as shops, customs, ships, national roads, places of special interest and others. According to the AADE plan, cross-checks to identify undeclared income will continue in 2024 for income exceeding €10,000.

The auditors have all the data of the auditees at their disposal, and using the electronic “live audit” system they are directly connected to the operations center, where the team of employees is located. Audits will cover all types of economic activity, with “red debts” also at the forefront – AADE tries to contain a new explosion of “unpaid taxes”. The goal is to collect 2.8 billion euros from old debts totaling 107 billion euros and 2.3 billion euros from new ones that will be created within a year.

The new agency will be reminiscent of the financial crimes department (SDOE) of yesteryear (the tax police), where customs and tax inspectors worked as a team. Instead of optimizing taxes and reducing government spending, the authorities are tightening penalties. And for this purpose, parallel power structures are being introduced following the example of Ukraine.

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