Freelancers need to pull their weight, too
A breakdown of the data concerning the taxation of freelance professionals published by Kathimerini on Sunday shone the spotlight on another year of widespread tax evasion. The numbers indicate that once again, a significant part of this category continues to evade paying taxes, given that the majority (402,183 from a total of 714,465) declared an annual income of 3,215 euros, which comes down to just 268 euros a month. However, with the new Finance Ministry regulation introducing a minimum presumptive income, the takings of those more than 400,000 freelancers increased fourfold to 12,794 euros, which means that they had to pay an average tax (along with the 50% discounted professional license fee) of 2,058 euros.
It is worth noting that despite this “correction,” data from the AADE public revenues agency show that the average income declared by all freelance professionals came to 13,901 euros, meaning that it continues to be well below the average income declared by salaried professionals (16,470 euros) and below only that of pensioners, whose average takings last year came to 13,333 euros.
What all this boils down to is the very suspicious fact that more than 400,000 self-employed professionals appear to be living on 268 euros a month and declaring an income that is three times below that of salaried workers who are paid minimum wage and declared an average annual income of 10,920 euros.
It is also worth noting that freelancers who thought they were treated unfairly by the presumptive income measure have the right to take recourse to the tax court and produce evidence challenging the assumption. However, of those 400,000 or so freelancers, just 366 have formally challenged the bill they were presented with by the tax authorities.
The most recent data published by AADE leaves no doubt that the Finance Ministry needs to conduct random checks on those 400,000 or so freelancers who appear to be dodging their taxes as a matter of course, to the extent of claiming that they earn just 268 euros a month. What’s more, the government’s apparent intention – as a matter of political expediency – to amend the latest tax law to ease the burden on freelance professionals is ill-timed and out of place. Such a decision would be a gross injustice against all the other categories of taxpayers, and especially against salaried workers and pensioners who have no way of hiding what they earn and have borne the biggest burden of revenue generation for years.
