Taxation in France

 In first three months gov?t tapped 40 pct more cash through repos than amount foreseen for entire year

By Sotiris Nikas & Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Greece levies the highest taxes on families with two children among the 34 member-states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Greece’s closely monitored budget showed a deficit of 194 million euros in the first two months of 2015, a reversal from a surplus of 487 million euros in the corresponding period last year.
The slide in the state’s finances is attributed directly to political uncertainty in the country before and after the Jan. 25 election.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Over 3.4 million taxpayers have either failed to fulfill their tax obligations or have avoided paying their dues to the state in the last couple of years. Since 2013 they have run up debts of 21.6 billion euros to the tax authorities, most of which concern arrears of below 3,000 euros each, which they can now repay in up to 100 installments.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Athens and its creditors are increasingly alarmed by the course of public revenues in 2014, as they continue to fall short despite a revision of the targets for this year set out in the 2015 budget, tabled in Parliament last week.

Bulgaria has the sixth lowest overall taxes for medium-size companies in EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), shows the Paying Taxes 2015 survey of PriceWaterhouseCoopers among 189 economies worldwide.

The total tax rate in Bulgaria is 27%, which ranks it sixth after Croatia (18.8%), Luxembourg (20.2%), Cyprus (23.2%), Ireland (25.9%) and Denmark (26%).

Romania's government is proposing controversial increases in some taxes after deciding to cut taxes on employers in order to boost job creation.

The cabinet on Wednesday is to start debating a draft Fiscal Code that includes increasing taxes on cars and owners of non-residential properties among other things.

 January-May budget figures show tax collections fetched 140 million euros more than expected

By Sotiris Nikas

The budget’s primary balance and its revenues have beaten their targets according to the deficit figures for the year’s first five months released on Tuesday by the Finance Ministry.

Value-added tax revenues from fuel consumption missed their budget target by 288 million euros in the January-March period.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Despite the significant lag in public revenues, the state budget produced a primary surplus of 1.54 billion euros in the first quarter of the year, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Finance Ministry.