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Exemplary arrests for income evasion are expected

07 February 2010 / 15:02:57  GRReporter
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The socialist government of George Papandreou starts a campaign against the income evasion. With an exemplary goal in the near future it is expected that arrests will be made and this time we will see in handcuffs not just criminals, but also famous doctors, lawyers, businessmen who do not pay their taxes. In an interview for the Sunday issue of the Etnos newspaper the Minister of Finance Georgios Papakonstantinou announced that there will be changes made in the criminal code, where firmer punishments will be stipulated for the conceiving of incomes. The minister announced that in the next week the results will be ready from the tax inspections in the offices of famous doctors in the aristocratic neighborhood of Athens Kolonaki, who are famous for conceiving their incomes and do not issue invoices for fees that are being paid at the time of the examination of patients.

Kolonaki will only be the start of a series of exemplary arrests of public characters, who do not wish to pay their taxes throughout the entire Greece. In the campaign will take part experts from the Ministry of finance as well as the service for prevention of economic crimes, the police and the prosecutors’ office. The goal of the campaign is to warn the Greek society that it now came the end of the wise guys who want to be rich and at the same time do not wish to pay taxes like beggars. The ones arrested for income evasion will be brought to trial like criminals and there will be no long trials allowed. “If we manage to arrest two or three famous people who have become rich by stealing from the government and have gotten away with this because they are famous and have connections, then all the common citizens will think about if it is worth it to evade their incomes”, said for the Vima newspaper a participant in the campaign.

According to the same source the authorities are on the tracks of ten businessmen who have achieved impressive results in the deceit of the tax agencies by filing false documents for huge transactions. Another group of about ten businessmen refuse to pay the VAT and hope for a document to be voted, which will bind them to pay the tax dated from before, however will exempt them from fines for the unpaid amounts. And another impressive case, how lawyers and notaries hide their incomes. The authorities have located the purchase of a luxurious grounds in the center of Athens for a quite an attractive price (according to the documents of course) for the amount of 58,62 euro for two dca of land!

The income evasion is done in the most inventive ways. The service for prevention of economic crimes has also come upon a concert of a famous Greek singer on the even more famous island Mikonos in its most famous club. At the concert were present 1500 celebrities from Athens and during the party there is not a single receipt issued for anything….

Of course the government of George Papandreou is not the first one to start dealing with the problem of income evasion. Some time ago the former minister of finance Georgios Alogoskufis threatened that the people who do not pay their taxes will lose their sleep however the only thing that happened was that he lost his job. The income evasion is the national sport of the Greeks and not paying their taxes is their favorite hobby.

Tags: income evasion taxes crime news
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