Gov?t wants self-employed to share more of the tax burden
Plans to abolish the 5,000-euro tax-free threshold may be abandoned by the government as the income statements that have just been processed showed a major imbalance between the tax paid by salaried professionals and pensioners on the one hand and the self-employed and freelancers on the other.
Sunday?s Kathimerini understands that salaried professionals and pensioners declared incomes of more than 70 billion euros in the 2011 tax statements processed this summer.
In comparison, the self-employed and freelancers declared just 3.5 billion euros. This means that professionals and pensioners will account for about 8 billion of the 11 billion euros in income tax revenues the government plans to raise this year. As a result, the government is reconsidering its overhaul of Greece?s tax system and aiming to place a greater share of the burden on the self-employed, who are likely to be taxed at 30 percent, with no tax-free threshold.
The 5,000-euro limit, however, will remain for salaried professionals, while the number of income tax brackets will be reduced from eight to four.
