Officials crack down on tax-evasion on Mykonos
A well-known entertainment venue on Mykonos rushed to pay four million euros in overdue taxes on Sunday, after inspectors launched a tax-evasion crackdown on the upscale tourism island.
Almost sixty officials are involved in the four-day operation, which has been codenamed “Trident” because of the three-pronged focus of its inspections.
The inspections extend to all types of business on the island, from hotels and the providers of water sports activities and beach loungers, to nightclubs and tour operators.
The operation was launched on Sunday at the initiative of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) and with the assistance of the financial police.
One thrust of the operation involves inspectors auditing a business for a whole day and then comparing the takings to those of previous days. In the event of large discrepancies in takings, fines will be imposed on the business in question.
Secondly, inspectors are on the hunt for tampered cash registers, where rely on software to falsify electronic records for the purpose of tax evasion.
A third prong of the inspections involves checking if a business has any overdue debts to the state that are not being repaid in installments. Business with such debts will have their daily takings confiscated, which is why the inspectors are accompanied by a bailiff.
On Sunday, “Trident” inspectors detected a tampered sales register in Ornos and also seized the takings at a well-known Italian restaurant in lieu of tax debts.
Similarly, when inspectors established that Nammos, a well-known establishment located at Psarou beach, owed four million euros to the tax office, the company that operates it repaid the sum immediately.
