IRS takes leaf out of AADE book
American officials appear impressed by Greek online instruments promoting tax compliance
The online applications Greece has developed toward tax compliance and the limitation of tax evasion have generated interest among countries that until today no one would have thought would want to be informed on them by the Greek authorities, as well as on their results.
Electronic books (MyData), pre-filled declarations, the Timologio application, through which businesses can issue the documents, and the new Appodixi application, with which taxpayers can check whether a receipt is authentic and whether the data has been forwarded to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), have attracted the interest of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The Americans were impressed by the electronic invoicing and the Timologio application provided by the Greek tax office to businesses. Of course, in the US there is no need for businesses to inform the IRS in depth, as is done in many European countries. That is because there is no value-added tax at a central level nor accordingly the need to declare the amounts to be paid. At the same time, the electronic submission of declarations is optional in the US. In contrast, Greece is one of the few countries that has the full electronic submission of declarations for both businesses and individuals.
That does not mean there is no tax evasion in the US. For this reason, the American authorities want to be constantly informed about all the technological applications developed. The application, however, that really impressed the Americans was that which essentially puts taxpayers in the role of auditor. US officials were therefore interested in the process by which citizens scan receipts to determine if what they pay is declared to the tax office. That is, if the receipts issued are authentic or fake.
The fact that Greece will introduce incentives in the coming days for those who detect through the scanning of receipts any tampered ones, pointing to tax evasion, has surprised the IRS officials, as more than 150,000 citizens have already joined the battle on tax evasion.
