Plan to keep eye on debtors
The noose will be tightening around the 3.85 million debtors who owe a total of 95 billion euros in taxes, and pressure grow even further on all taxpayers, as the state is planning to make confiscation procedures automatic and ensure that the tax mechanism is instantly alerted when a debt becomes overdue.
A new online system, slated to be ready by 2020, will allow tax authorities to have a complete picture of payments, settlements and expired debts, while also activating automatic procedures for forced collection measures, confiscations and auctions, freezing bank accounts, etc.
The plan provides for confiscation notices to be sent in fully automatic mode, while the monitoring mechanism will know the precise sum of the assets of all debtors, from bank accounts and properties, to any deposits abroad.
The system will have broad montoring powers, as it will be connected to every other state online database (the Cadaster, the Ergani hirings register, banks, the stock market, the General Commerce Register, etc), as well as the debtors’ list of Teiresias, so as to monitor the everyday financial transactions of state debtors.
It will also offer taxpayers information and electronic updates through their personal profiles.
The head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue on Thursday proclaimed a tender for the new system. The deadline for offers has been set for January 15 and the project’s budget is estimated at 768,051 euros.
True, the pressure on Greek households from overtaxation is such that two in three Greek consumers have in the last 12 months failed to pay in time at least one of their obligations, with 70 percent of those cases being due to money shortages. This is the highest rate recorded among 24 European countries according to the European Consumer Payment Report 2017, which has been compiled by Intrum. The figures serve to confirm the everyday anxiety of the biggest part of Greek society to cover rising utility bills, increasing taxes and social security contributions, and their loan obligations.
