General Secretariat

Tax administration in Greece will enter a new era from 2017, as the use of new technologies will lead to a reduction in bureaucracy, improved service for citizens and the containment of tax evasion.

Members of 19 professional and business associations on Lesvos occupied the offices of the General Secretariat of Aegean and Island Policy in Mytilene for three hours Wednesday to protest the planned revocation on January 1 of a special 30 percent discount on value-added tax rates that Lesvos and other islands enjoy.

The Economy Ministry has proposed to the country's creditors a common haircut system for corporate debts to banks and the state as a part of the out-of-court settlement mechanism, Kathimerini understands.

The proposal foresees all debts being tackled on the same basis, without any limits or restrictions.

The General Secretariat for Public Revenue is currently working feverishly on the terms and conditions for settlements - including write-offs - of debts that corporations owe to the state, ahead of the return of the creditors' representatives next week and the completion of the bill on out-of-court settlements.

The General Secretariat for Public Revenue has begun identifying properties owned by Greek taxpayers in 84 other countries which cooperate with the Greek authorities in a data exchange system.

The country's tax administration is planning a new, much stricter fines system for businesses and the self-employed, given that the fines currently incurred by those who do not issue receipts amount to little more than a slap on the wrist, as the Finance Ministry's inspectors realized during inspections conducted mainly this summer at tourism destinations.

Taxpayers will have to declare income from abroad, holdings in foreign companies and property assets and capital in other countries in the online asset register ("Periousiologio") that the General Secretariat for Public Revenue will introduce in 2017, which will also include all taxpayer data stored by the tax authorities.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his government managed to raise 256 million euros from the recent broadcasting tender which auctioned off four nationwide TV licences, because the limited number created more competition.

Seven out of 10 taxpayers who resort to administrative courts win their cases. Finance Ministry data that Kathimerini has seen show that of 604 court verdicts, 440 were in the taxpayers' favor, which raises significant questions as to the way inspections are conducted and the taxes and fines imposed.

Taxpayers' expired debts to the state for this year expanded by 1.3 billion euros last month, taking the total of old and new debts to the tax authorities and social security funds to 91.5 billion euros, or more than half of the country's gross domestic product.