Tax

Greek workers, retirees and self-employed professionals will see a significant reduction in their tax bills in 2020, says a bill that reduces the lowest income taxes to 9 percent from 22 percent for income to 10,000 euros, Kathimerini reported.

The bill will also include provisions for construction and tax cuts on business profits.

Salaried workers, pensioners and self-employed professionals will see significant reductions in their tax bills in 2020, according to a draft law that reduces the lowest income tax bracket to 9 percent from 22 percent for incomes up 10,000 euros, maintains the income tax-free ceiling at 8,636 euros per year and offers deductions for families with children.

Complications are emerging in the introduction of the measure suspending the 24 percent value-added tax on transactions involving properties built with a permit issued after January 1, 2006. Sources say a number of technical matters have surfaced that render this favorable regulation rather difficult when it comes to unsold housing stock.

By the end of next week, the Finance Ministry will have its tax bill ready, which besides tax-easing measures will also include incentives for individuals and corporations active abroad to transfer their tax residency to Greece.

With its decision, the government approved the report on the cash execution of the consolidated fiscal program for the first half of 2019.

The ambitious package announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) last weekend is seen as a reflection of the government's much-touted bid to spur the economy and to hit the ground running in the fall.

The government's intention to legislate tax-easing measures and incentives for investments has cultivated great expectations among property market professionals.

It is the intention of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to ease taxes every year from 2019 to 2023, undertaking the obligation to render accounts of its action every year while reserving the right to surprise citizens with the reduction of tax rates earlier than scheduled.

Romania is no longer among the countries that experience the widening of the tax gap, said the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), referring to the European Commission's recent VAT Gap report. For Romania, the figures show that the fiscal gap remained approximately steady at 35.8 percent in 2016 and 35.5 percent in 2017 (the numbers are rounded off to 36 percent for both years).

The head of Greece's tax collection agency presented its efforts to improve tax compliance in Greece in an interview with Finance and Development, a monthly publication of the International Monetary Fund.

Giorgos Pitsilis referred to the campaign to encourage tourists to ask for a receipt, dubbed "Apodixi, please."