Professionals rarely accept card payments

Thousands of self-employed professionals, such as lawyers, accountants, engineers, electricians, doctors and taxi drivers, have installed card terminals to comply with legislation, but hardly ever use them.

Kathimerini has seen the statistics banks have collected regarding the use of card terminals by key professional categories such as the above, which are associated with high tax evasion rates, and the low use recorded is highly indicative that the tax dodging is continuing.

The professional categories with the lowest use of installed terminals are those of lawyers and engineers, as 90 percent of them did not make a single transaction using their terminals throughout 2017. They are followed by electricians, with 80 percent of them accepting cash only, and accountants, with a respective rate of 70 percent. The respective rate for doctors is relatively lower, at 38 percent, which means that five in eight doctors in Greece used their card terminal at least once last year.

Three-quarters of dentists accepted at least one card payment last year, which is explained by the costly nature of the work performed, with this group of professionals preferring card payments as they reduce the risk of clients building up large arrears.

As for taxi drivers, more than 30 percent did not use their card terminals last year, while 80 percent of bakeries accepted at least one payment by card.

Further data analysis shows that most of those professionals who did use their card terminals did not do so very often: Of the doctors who accepted card payments last year, 62 percent recorded an average turnover of 200 euros per month.

Similarly, 30 percent of accountants who accepted cards collected 300 euros per month via their terminals, 10 percent of lawyers received 600 euros per month, 20 percent of electricians saw card payments averaging at 150 euros/month, a fifth of taxi drivers swiped passengers’ cards to collect just 40 euros per month, and 20 percent of bakeries collected 50 euros per month via their card terminals.