SEV: Taxation hikes a recipe for failure
Eftychios Vassilakis, vice president of the Federation of Hellenic Enterprises (SEV), on Wednesday criticized government proposals to raise tax rates at the expense of productive and efficient private sector workers to raise 300 million euros per year, branding it “a recipe for failure.”
Addressing a special event held by the federation, Vassilakis made it clear that the economy today requires a “modernization of taxation, a lifting of tax disincentives and the introduction of strong, horizontal investment incentives.”
“Instead of creating incentives for investment that support and are based on tax honesty and consistency, we are increasing the nominal rates to the benefit of tax evasion, particularly so in an environment of limited liquidity,” the leading industrialist stated, before making his case in favor of tax system modernization.
He cited a survey by the Athens University of Economics and Business showing that the introduction of online pricing by enterprises would increase the annual benefit for companies by as much as 1.5 billion euros, along with reducing bogus invoices by 80 percent and bringing an additional 1 million euros into state coffers from value-added tax.
