Ministry plan for tax cuts from 2015
After four years of tax increases that have strained Greek households and businesses, the Finance Ministry is planning to introduce tax cuts from next year for salaried workers, pensioners and self-employed professionals but this will depend on authorities boosting tax collection rates, Kathimerini understands.
The tenuous plan for tax cuts has been drafted by the ministry’s General Secretariat for Public Revenue which aims to boost the collectibility of taxes – currently at around 75 percent – to almost 100 percent by next year. The ministry’s target is to collect 6.9 billion euros from taxpayers this year but in order to hit that target – due to the collectibility shortfall – authorities have imposed 9.17 billion. The 2.2 billion euros expected to elude tax collectors will be added to existing debts to the state that currently amount to around 66 billion euros.
It is chiefly to avoid adding to this pile of debts that the secretariat wants to boost the collectibility rate. Ministry officials will then be able to gradually reduce tax rates, according to the secretariat’s plan.
The new procedure, to be implemented from 2015, foresees the deduction of income tax from salaries or pensions on a monthly basis as opposed to the payment in full by taxpayers the year after their imposition as is currently the case.
