Budget relies on taxes from 0.4 pct of firms

Just 914 enterprises, or 0.4 percent of the total of at least 220,000 companies in Greece, pay 40 percent of total corporate income tax in the country, official data show.

Also, the 3,790 biggest employers in the country employ over 780,000 people – more than 44 percent of the total number of private employees in Greece.

These two statistics serve to illustrate that both tax revenues and social security contributions depend on a particularly small number of enterprises, and the burden has been growing with each year that the financial crisis continues.

However, this concentration of taxpaying sources poses a serious risk to public revenues, as any decisions by the enterprises to relocate, or to postpone any investment projects, or even any plans to avoid having to pay taxes, would have an immediate impact on the execution of the state budget.

Already income tax statement statistics indicate that 70 percent of the corporations are showing losses or marginal profits that do not exceed 8,000-10,000 euros per year. There are also several enterprises which systematically do not fulfill their tax and social security obligations even though they are considered capable of doing so.