Friday

29th Mar 2024

Greece to seize tax dodgers' assets

  • The Greek government is owed an estimated €60 billion in back taxes (Photo: .michael.newman.)

Greek tax authorities will seize the assets of businesses and individuals who do not settle their tax debts, the government said on Tuesday (13 August).

Under the plans, the Greek finance ministry will issue warnings that assets will be seized if the recipients do not arrange a payment plan within 20 days to those who owe more than €10,000.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The move is the latest attempt by the Greek government to clamp down on tax evasion.

An estimated €60 billion in unpaid taxes and social security contributions are currently owed to the Greek government, leaving a gaping hole in the country's budget.

Earlier this week, figures released by the Greek finance ministry revealed that tax revenues from the first six months of 2013 were about €1.5 billion behind target.

While revenues have been badly hit by the country's six-year recession which has wiped out over 20 percent of the country's economy, tax collection remains one of Greece's biggest budgetary problems.

In July, the country's finance ministry set up a five person committee, including two former tax collection chiefs from Ireland and Sweden, to advise the government.

The Troika, which represents Greece's creditors from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, demanded an independent tax advisory board as a condition for Greece's aid programme.

Greece currently has one of the lowest tax collection rate as a proportion of GDP.

According to the EU's statistical agency Eurostat. Taxes worth 34.9 % of GDP were collected by Greek tax authorities in 2011, with only Ireland and Spain having a lower collection rate.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us