By T. Economopoulos

Yesterday was the final deadline for filing income tax declarations and from Monday the country’s army of tax officials will start perusing the returns of salary earners, pensioners and the self-employed with the aim of discovering hidden incomes and bogus expenses which limit the amount of taxable income and, ultimately, the amount of tax that citizens will be called upon to pay.

And this is the way things should be, particularly in a country where tax evasion (irrespective of the financial benefits accrued by the “wise guys” who get away with it) is something of a national sport, which means inspections need to be frequent, meticulous and very rigorous.

You might wonder how likely it is for salary earners and pensioners to be depriving the state of millions of euros through tax evasion. But there is scope for tax evasion everywhere and so everyone needs to be subject to inspection.

However, the truth is that Greek society perceives the tax system to be unfair and not equally onerous on all citizens. If you owe even a small amount to the state and ask for a certificate showing you have no tax arrears (in order to carry out some transaction), the “system” will not treat you with the same degree of “understanding” that it would show a large company. Not long ago, there was speculation about how some firms with large tax debts had managed to obtain a certificate showing that they had fulfilled their tax obligations, a prerequisite when bidding for public procurement tenders.

The government has another way of unfairly taxing citizens. The salary earner or pensioner is taxed at source every month – when they receive their wage or pension – as opposed to being taxed once at the end of the financial year, as is the case with businesses, which have the luxury of using the money they would have paid in monthly taxes as working capital.

Replying recently to an MP’s question in Parliament, Deputy Economy Minister Antonis Bezas said that debts due from taxpayers stood at 17.6 billion euros – a colossal sum when considering the dynamic nature of the Greek economy as well as the massive fiscal problems that repeatedly oblige the state to resort to borrowing.

Of this figure of 17.6 billion euros, –15.5 billion is believed to be owed by just 10,000 of some 650,000 debtors, chiefly businesses. And of these, just 1.5 percent owes 80 percent of the –15.5 billion. So one can imagine the size, and of course the power, of these crooked businesses which are finding various ways of dodging their taxes. Unfortunately this problem, which has existed for decades, shows no signs of abating despite the state’s pressing need for capital.