Strike against tax evasion
Connection of card terminals with cash registers and the taxman will boost state revenue
The planning of National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis includes a new framework for the taxation of the self-employed. The new finance minister has challenged himself to make his own mark in the fight against tax evasion, as he did in his previous posts tackling pensions, Public Power Corporation and Olympic Airways.
The ministry’s relevant bill, with the aim of “satisfying the public’s sense of justice,” as he said in an interview with Kathimerini, will be tabled in Parliament next year. It will be preceded, immediately after this month’s Thessaloniki International Fair, by the passing of regulations for the wider use of digital tools in the fight against tax evasion, but also for limiting the use of cash in transactions.
“The flagship of our effort will be the connection of card terminals (POS) with the cash registers and the tax authorities to make the corresponding checks. In the first months of 2024 the connection of 450,000 businesses will be completed. At the same time, initiatives for electronic invoices, for myDATA and the generalization of these initiatives are progressing. The checks already made on islands show that the connection of POS with cash registers can generate very significant income,” he says.
“Serious fiscal policy is a pro-people policy,” he argues, moreover, recalling the price the country paid during the bailouts’ streamlining period, because it had lived beyond its means. This time, in view of TIF, the government has prepared the ground for a small basket of benefits, with Hatzidakis reiterating that half of its pre-election program has already been voted and that other interventions will follow, such as the increase of pensions “slightly above the 3% level.”
In the interview, Hatzidakis further mentioned that a bill will soon be submitted for vulnerable borrowers and their obligations to be informed by servicers, as well as regulation for the taxation of Airbnb-type short-term rentals. He also announced initiatives to encourage onshore investments by Greek shipowners and to strengthen incentives for small business mergers.
