Tax avalanche to follow elections
Millions of people are in for a post-election shock as they will start receiving a series of notes asking them to settle a series of tax obligations. This is a result of the government?s decision to avoid sending any such slips before the polls, postponing even those for the Single Property Tax (ETAK) of 2009 that were ready for mailing.
A top Finance Ministry official told Kathimerini that the delivery of the ETAK slips was put off following an intervention from the higher echelons of the government.
?We were even forced to withdraw all ETAK data from the TAXISnet electronic system in order to prevent people that visited the tax authorities for any other purpose from having to pay their ETAK,? the same official added. Thirty taxpayers however did in fact pay their first ETAK installment before the withdrawal of the online data.
According to the schedule, the mailing of the property tax slips for 2010 and 2011 will begin next week, kicking off a process whereby taxpayers will find themselves having to pay a different tax bill just about every month from mid-May till the end of the year.
Besides property tax, citizens will also have to pay income tax, the special property levy tagged onto electricity bills, the annual fee to practice a profession and the solidarity tax, while it remains unclear what will happen with the property tax for 2012.
As far as income tax is concerned, taxpayers will have to submit their annual statements between May 9 and June 15. These will then have to be processed as early as possible, probably as of the end of July, when the first tax clearance slips will be sent for income tax payment. Those slips will also include the solidarity tax and the profession fee, which this year will soar to 500 euros from 300 euros last year.
