Bill to match tax fines with EU case law
The inspection plans of Greece’s tax authorities have been upended by the decisions of the Council of State and the case law of the European Union, forcing the government to proceed to the adjustment of fines imposed on tax dodgers.
After the verdict by the country’s highest administrative court, which upheld the statute of limitations for a number of suspicious cases dating from 2011 or earlier (including many in the so-called Lagarde List) and means 65 CDs with money-forwarding case lists must be archived, the Finance Ministry is expected to table in Parliament a bill in the coming days that will drastically reduce the fines issued in old cases (before 2014). This will also concern cases which remain pending at the level of the arbitration committee and administrative courts, but will not entail the return of fines paid by those already inspected.
The reduction of fines will concern cases of monitoring that is under way or will take place in the future, as well as those that are in arbitration.
The fines currently imposed vary widely: For instance, in cases dating from 2013, the amount of the fine imposed was 120 percent of the main tax due, while for cases of the following year, the fines amounted to just 50 percent of the main tax.
