Receipt-dodging businesses face 48-hour shutdown

Businesses that fail to issue receipts may face a 48-hour shutdown, according to a recent measure introduced by Giorgos Pitsilis, the Finance Ministry’s general secretary for public revenue, in a bid to crack down on widespread tax evasion.

The threat of closure comes on top of stricter fines announced last month as part of the Finance Ministry’s revved-up campaign to restrict tax dodging.

According to the decision, tax inspectors will be able to temporarily shut down firms, shops and other professional premises when their owners or managers are found to have skipped 10 receipts or when the value of the unissued receipts comes to above 500 euros.

Every inspection will have to have been approved by the Secretariat for Public Revenues.

Inspectors will have to notify the local police precinct of the closure order, while also posting a copy of the decision at the entrance to the business’s premises, specifying the closure date and the date of reopening. The offender must be presented with a copy of the decision, which can be signed by the head of the local tax office, “on the authority of the general secretary for public revenue.”

Pitsilis called on officials at the country’s tax offices to ensure that staff are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to implement the decision.