Overtime ban a boon for tax dodgers
Unscrupulous nightclub and restaurant owners will now be able to violate tax legislation at will at night as the Finance Ministry announced on Friday in a circular that inspections will be completed at 10 p.m. due to a lack of funds to pay inspectors for overtime.
It appears that the State General Accounting Office has refused to allow overtime for nighttime inspections, which means that tax evasion will be unhindered after 10 p.m.
Despite the awkward situation, data since April 2013 show that the tax administration has improved remarkably. Fines are being collected faster than in previous years while major cases of tax evasion are now being identified and published. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and the general secretary for public revenues, Haris Theoharis, estimate that revenues from combating tax evasion will keep growing in the coming months.
