ANA-MPA — Greece’s Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis on Wednesday announced plans to revise a special property tax with the aim of lightening the burden for low incomes and small property holders, without changing a 2.65 billion euros revenue target.
He also announced a package of measures to intensify controls in the market and in tourist regions of the country.
Alexiadis said that the ministry was examining measures exploiting credit cards for direct VAT payments and announced that a plan for an online connection of cash machines with the ministry’s IT authority would begin from tourist islands. He dismissed the possibility of further extending a deadline for income tax statements.
The Greek minister said the ministry has already made plans to change a special property tax, adding: “We cannot reduce the target of 2.5 billion euros in tax revenue”, while he stressed that the ministry was currently discussing a timetable for property tax payment with the country’s creditors.
Alexiadis said that interventions and corrections must be made in the taxation of farmers, but cautiously in order to avoid impacting primary production in the country. He said that the issue was under discussion with the country’s creditors. He stressed that the ministry was examining plans to facilitate enterprises to pay their taxes by the end of the year, such as expanding a measure for offsetting taxes.
He also announced a package of measures aimed at intensifying tax controls in the market and particularly in tourist regions. He added that inspections carried out over the weekend on a total of 1,600 enterprises found that tax evasion rates were around 23 pct.
