Greece will lower taxes on dividends by 33 percent
Greece is cutting taxes on dividends by 33 percent, hoping to draw investors and provide some relief for companies, which have complained about overtaxation since Greece’s debt crisis nearly a decade ago.
A bill passed by parliament on Wednesday will lower the tax rate on dividends to 10 percent from 15 percent, effective from January 2019. The reduction is expected to cost the state 45 million euros ($50.92 million) a year from 2020.
Tax revenues from individuals and businesses as a percentage of gross domestic product reached 39.4 percent in 2017, up from 32 percent in 2010, according to an OECD report published last year.
The average among the OECD’s 36 countries is 34.2 percent.
The government has promised to gradually reduce corporate tax to 25 percent from 29 percent over a four-year period; the corporate rate was reduced to 28 percent this year.
Greece emerged from its third bailout last August and its economy has been recovering for more than two years.
[Reuters]
