Independent Authority for Public Revenue

More than twice as many tax declarations have been submitted compared to the same time last year, which is due to the fact that the online Taxisnet system opened earlier than ever this year.

More than 13,000 state debtors submitted an application to repay their dues in up to 120 installments within 24 hours of the launch of the online platform's operations. At the same time, according to data from the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, 100,000 taxpayers visited the platform on Taxisnet to find out the amount they will have to pay and the number of tranches.

Over 3.9 million citizens have debts to the tax authorities, according to data published on Friday by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue. It remains to be seen how many of them will enter the new payment plan for up to 120 tranches and what amount they will decide to pay.

While the government has stated its intention to hand out around a billion euros next week - ahead of the May 26 European, local and regional elections - the state owes well over half that in outstanding value-added tax rebates to taxpayers, according to data from the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.

Pensioners constitute the biggest single group of taxpayers in Greece, confirming the ominous predictions about the impact of an aging population on growth and state finances.

Indebted taxpayers are increasingly abandoning the settlement deals they had reached in previous years, either because they don't have the cash to make the payments or because they are hoping for more favorable arrangements on the basis of suggestions cultivated by the government.

The pre-election period and the uncertainty among citizens could create the conditions for a new generation of overdue arrears, and generally harm efforts to promote a tax-paying culture, according to the business plan of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.

A staggering 96.5 percent of state debtors have not entered any sort of debt settlement or payment plan due to their inability to respond to the tax authorities' 12-tranche repayment offer.

For every 10 euros the tax authorities collect, half comes from 5 percent of taxpayers and the other half from the remaining 95 percent, tax data processed by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue show.

The head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, Giorgos Pitsilis, has issued clear guidelines to all Greek customs offices over how they should deal with transactions between Greece and North Macedonia from now on.