Tax

Less than a fifth of Greek taxpayers cover 90 percent of the income tax the Greek state receives every year, while just a few enterprises pay the bulk of corporate tax, an economists' conference on the Greek budget for 2019 heard on Tuesday in Athens.

The tax administration is asking the country's banks to provide details of all transactions since 2015 concerning the accounts of taxpayers who are under investigation.

Property owners are rushing to notaries to transfer their real estate assets to their children before January 1, when the new taxable rates for properties, known as objective values, come into effect. However, most give up when they figure out just how much such a transfer would set them back.

Greece is the last decade's tax hike champion among the 35 member-states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to a new OECD report.

The report, which reflects the huge burden imposed on Greek taxpayers, shows that Greece remains the global leader not only in the sum of taxes but also in categories such as consumption taxation and property levies.

Married couples will be able to submit separate income tax declarations next spring for their 2018 incomes, provided they submit an application to that effect to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue by February 28.

The capital gains tax for property ownership is apparently to be suspended for another year. Although it was voted through in 2013, it has never been properly applied due to the major decline in property prices and the complexity of the legislation.

While Greece has managed to digitalize much of its bureaucracy, this has not reduced red tape or made it cheaper. Indeed, Greeks pay indirect taxes amounting to hundreds of millions of euros for financial as well as personal transactions, hidden in the form of an administrative fee, known as "paravolo" in Greek.

The revelations on the activities of two gangs accused of smuggling gold out of Greece have thrown light on a hidden aspect of the human tragedy of the past few years. In addition to undermining the present and the future, with the sudden drop in living standards and incomes, the flight of young people and more deaths than births, the crisis is also robbing us of the past.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has submitted a 71-article omnibus bill, which introduces regulations over a wide ranging issues such as unemployment pay entitlement, old-age pensions, urban transformation, special consumption tax on certain items and house rents, to the office of the speaker of parliament.

The policy of high taxation and levies, such as the solidarity tax and the exorbitant ENFIA property tax that has wrought destruction on the middle class, is taking an unbearable toll on Greek households, according to the latest data published by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR).