Exchange of bank details with 49 countries
The Independent Authority for Public Revenue expects to receive by the end of this month details concerning the bank accounts and generally the financial commodities held by Greeks in 49 other countries, as part of mutual data exchanges.
Likewise, Greek banks have until September 15 to upload online and then forward to the tax authorities of the cooperating countries the data pertaining to foreign nationals who hold accounts in Greece.
This means that by the end of the month, any Greek taxpayers with accounts in countries such as Great Britain, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Belgium or Bermuda who have not declared them to the Greek authorities are in for a surprise, as their details will become known to Greek tax officials. In the case of undeclared incomes, the fines will be huge, coming to as much as 120 percent of the capital. Of course those who have money abroad that is fully justified by their properties and assets, and has already been taxed, have nothing to worry about.
Among the amounts targeted will be the interest obtained from large deposits abroad, which account holders have to declare to local tax authorities as income.
