System for close monitoring of tax rebates
Greece’s tax administration is creating an online system to monitor the progress of tax rebates to individuals and businesses, especially cases which appear to be gathering dust at various tax offices around the country.
The aim of the Independent Authority of Public Revenue is to reduce the stock of debts to taxpayers and businesses, which currently stands at more than 1.8 billion euros. Over a quarter of that amount (474 million euros) concerns value-added tax rebates and the average waiting time for payment by the state is more than 357 days.
According to IAPR planning, by the end of the year it will have set in motion the system for monitoring the payment of obligations more than 90 days past due “in order for the Authority to obtain more complete information about tax rebate obligations.”
The IAPR is effectively trying to put pressure on tax offices to pay the state’s overdue debts to taxpayers, in the context of high taxes and social security obligations and low cash flows.
Finance Ministry figures show that thousands of businesses have to wait an excessively long time for their VAT rebates, in some cases for more than four years.
