Curb your enthusiasm; taxes ahead

Dear reader,

This is our weekly round-up from Greece.

Assuming that all half a million self-employed professionals in Greece are tax evaders, the government decided to tax them accordingly. Only it won’t work. This happened at a time when the Greeks had drastically cut consumption of essential goods due to economic hardship. 

There is no money for welfare policies, but there is always money for the TV channels. The government would now pay all their debt to the insurance fund -some 6.8 million- on the basis they were affected by… the war in Ukraine.

A 16-year-old girl was found unconscious with serious head injuries after an anti-fascist concert when clashes with the police erupted. The coroner’s report severely doubted the Greek police’s version of events. Later in the week, neofascists attempted to set people on fire in the Metro. When the police finally intervened, they threw tear gas.  

You’ll be taxed as a tax evader. It doesn’t matter if you are not.

It also doesn’t matter if you had to reduce feta consumption by 73% 

What happens when your state taxes you on the presumption you are a tax-evader, that is, on the presumption you are robbing the state?

Greece’s government announced (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on Tuesday that as of this year, self-employed professionals will be presumed to earn a minimum of 10,920 euros per year and will be taxed accordingly through their tax return declarations submitted in 2024.