Independent Authority

Tax revenues in March were 24 percent above the budget target, the head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, Giorgos Pitsilis, told the 13th Athens Tax Forum convened by the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday, amid calls for more rational taxation that would allow the private economy to grow.

The online platform for the submission of this year's income tax declarations (for incomes earned in 2016) opened on Thursday, earlier than ever before, and it appears that it will close on July 15, although a legal clause to that end is still anticipated.

New software for tax checks has already identified some 70,000 taxpayers with hidden incomes - partly using data from money forwarded abroad - and emails have been sent out demanding the payment of additional taxes totaling 134 million euros.

A new online system for cross-checking deposits against income declarations, which is aimed at identifying tax dodgers, is set to launch on Thursday.

Back in 2013, Greece's Parliament passed legislation that enabled authorities to track down uninsured vehicles. Four years later, however, that law remains on paper.

Failure to see through the measure is just another sign of the country's ineffective public administration. It also demonstrates the absence of strong political will to implement the law.

The process for the identification of uninsured vehicles will not begin before mid-May, as the Finance Ministry will first try to locate the vehicles with debts from road tax due for the years 2013-16.

Taxpayers' expired debts are growing rapidly. According to figures released on Thursday by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, Greeks created new tax arrears of 1.63 billion euros in January 2017.

This is one of the biggest rises in debt creation recorded in a single month in recent years and reflects taxpayers' inability to respond to their obligations.

The Independent Authority for Public Revenue last year confiscated bank deposits of state debtors totaling 124 million euros, according to data that Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou presented in Parliament on Monday.

State revenues came in at 6.43 percent above the budget target in January, according to provisional figures released on Friday by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.

The multiple new taxes imposed in 2016 apparently lessened the tax inspection mechanisms' appetite, as checks and collections were reduced compared to the targets in the the bailout agreement.