Tax offenders before 2006 in the clear, according to gov't circular

The Independent Authority for Public Revenue issued a circular on Monday that effectively ends the hostage status of tens of thousands of taxpayers and enterprises over past tax violations that are more than a decade old.

Enforcing a Council of State decision that deemed illegal any extension to the statute of limitations beyond the five-year period provided, the circular signed by IAPR head Giorgos Pitsilis directed the tax-inspection mechanism as to which cases it should focus on.

Pitsilis noted that all tax violations dating from 2005 or earlier are covered by the statute of limitations, provided the taxpayers in question submitted their tax statements then.

Any tax violations from 2006 to 2010 should also be covered by the statute of limitations unless the monitoring mechanism has identified any additional data that require inspection.

In effect, this...