GDP shrinks but tax revenues grow
Tax revenues in Greece amounted to 66 billion euros in 2015, or 36.8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, up by a percentage point from 2014, according to the Revenue Statistics 1965-2015 report issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That is above the OECD member-state average of 34.3 percent of GDP.
Still, in terms of income tax revenues, Greece stands below the OECD average rate of 11.6 percent of GDP, as they amounted to 8.7 percent of GDP last year.
In the period from 1995 to 2007, when Greece recorded high growth figures, the rate of tax revenues as a percentage of GDP ranged between 27.8 percent and 33.4 percent, while since 2009 (when the recession had started) there has been a steady increase in the rate of tax revenues as a percentage of GDP. That is due to the increase in taxation since 2010, while in previous years revenues growth had relied on households’ higher disposable income and greater consumption.
The rate of tax on corporate profits as a percentage of GDP has remained relatively stable, at 2.9 percent, while the rate of taxpayers’ income tax as a percentage of GDP rose from 7.8 percent in 2014 to 8.5 percent in 2015, the report showed.
