Accountants to abstain until April 18
More than 1,200 tax declarations had been submitted by Wednesday afternoon while another 400 had been temporarily saved in the first 24 hours after the opening of the Taxisnet portal for income tax statements.
All signs point to the Finance Ministry extending the April 30 submission deadline. This means an amendment will be needed to move the deadline, probably to the end of June.
Meanwhile, in a decision set to hamper the process further, unions representing accountants, tax experts and consultants have announced they will refrain from submitting their clients’ tax declarations until April 18 to protest pension reforms, which, they say, will oblige them to pay up to 70 percent of their income in taxes and social security payments.
They also said they will block entrances to tax offices across the country on Thursday. “If the new system to calculate [social security] contributions is implemented then, by next year, it will be impossible for us to submit [client] tax declarations because there will simply be no more accountant offices and freelance accountants, as they will have all shut down,” said Constantinos Kollias, president of the Economic Chamber of Greece.
Vasilis Kampanis, the head of the nationwide federation of self-employed tax consultants (POFEE), urged his colleagues to “put political affiliations aside” and join the protest against pension reform.
