Budget 2025: Government increases citizens' income by taking more taxes

According to the draft new budget presented in parliament yesterday by Deputy Finance Minister Thanos Petralias, the government increases benefits to citizens by 1.1 billion euros, but at the same time will levy 1.1 billion euros more in income taxesthan this year.

So this is only to create the appearance of “kindness and generosity”; in reality, these increases will not be in the pockets of citizens, since the government will take them back through taxes. In particular, in 2024, 1.84 billion were allocated for benefits, increases and support measures. In the new year, it is planned to add another 1.1 billion to these benefits, and thus in 2025 they will reach 2.944 billion.

We are talking about increasing pensions by 2.5%, benefits, the minimum wage and employment in the private sector (with unemployment below 10%), as well as wages in the public sector.

However, at the same time, with such an increase, the government will receive even more taxes from citizens, since the tax scale will remain unchanged and tax rates will remain the same. It is therefore proposed to gradually increase all public sector salaries by €100, so that starting salaries will rise from €850 today to €950 in 2027, and in total civil servants will receive €280 million “gross” per year.

But 150 “net” will remain in their pockets, since almost half will go to tax deductions, etc. For those who understand the terminology, which, unfortunately, most Greeks do not understand, it is all hidden in the word “gross”. This is the word the state uses to fool citizens, and employers to fool workers when they explain to them what their earnings will be. The question is how much each person receives “net”, that is, how much goes into his pocket.

In addition, the government annually collects even more from citizens due to the constant and continuous rise in prices of goods, so that the Greeks, without realizing it, are paying increasingly large amounts of indirect taxes – VAT and fuel tax.

But we must admit that, with the help of all media, the government managed to present a convincing message to Greek society tax reduction and revenue increase program. And when people see that their pockets are even more empty than last year, they will not be able to immediately understand why…

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