Takings from deposits lists fail to impress

The deposits of Greek enterprises and individuals on the various lists of suspected tax dodgers given to Greek authorities add up to more than 10 billion euros, yet the tax evasion identified amounted to just 919 million euros (including the fines imposed), with only 107 million flowing into state coffers over the last three years. This contrasts with pledges for billions of euros in takings from the depositors lists.

The above data emerged courtesy of the Finance Ministry, after To Potami deputy Giorgos Amyras tabled a question in Parliament. The meager takings to date do not point to any significant increase anytime soon, given that most of the cases on the lists have reached their statute of limitations according to the verdict of the Council of State. Therefore the Independent Authority for Public Revenue is only probing cases that are less than five years old.

The figures indicated that 45 million euros had been collected from tax evaders on the Lagarde List, another 16.8 million from the Borjans List (concerning deposits of more than 6.5 billion euros), plus 45 million euros from the list of money forwarded abroad.