Editorial: Gifts and consolation prizes

Last Monday the finance ministry tabled in Parliament an emergency amendment to a health ministry bill pompously entitled "Modernisation and Restructuring of the Institutional Framework of Private Clinics, Establishment of a Public Health Organisation and Establishment of a National Organisation for Neoplasia, and other provisions".

The draft legislation was signed by Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Deputy Minister Ekaterini Papanatsiou.
As is the government's wont, the amendment it tabled was totally unrelated to the bill to which it was attached and was very specific and tailor-made.

It provided for the exemption of the Onassis Foundation and enterprises associated with it from the Special Real Estate Tax which represents 15 percent of the tax valuation of the property and which was provided for in Article 15 of law 3091 of 2002.

The lawmaker was especially generous to the charitable Foundation that is headquartered in Liechtenstein and the exemption was made to apply retroactively from 1 January, 2013!

That means that the Onassis Foundation will be exempted from paying that particular tax, which applies to all foundations that are active domestically but headquartered abroad.

As if that were not enough, between three and five million euros in taxes already paid will be refunded to the Foundation at a time when the bank accounts of economically challenged delinquent taxpayers are being seized and their safe deposit boxes are being opened.

The exemption applies to no other foundation that has its headquarters abroad so obviously it has been offered exceptionally to the Onassis Foundation.

Beyond any doubt the amendment and the act itself is a gift that underscores the ties and relations between Foundation's...

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