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The development of new changes, in the National Tax System, regarding taxation of income and capital, is already in its final stages and as soon as it gets the ¨green light¨from the Troika, which is expected to happen in the first ten days of October, this will be introduced in parliament.

With this bill taxpayers will realize that taxes are not over and done with, since the new "package" will also include measures as painful as those the government has undertaken so far, with the sole purpose, according to statements by officials of the economic team, to achieve primary surplus by the end of the first half of 2012, as a result of which any reductions in tax rates for companies are also under question. 

So, in addition to the radical changes in the narrow and wider public sector, the closure of institutions and organizations with the immediate layoffs of thousands of employees, the economic team is also accelerating the adoption of remedial measures, which have remained up its sleeve. 

Within this framework, the team has already started implementation of the "package" including, inter alia, increasing the objective value of the real estate and alignment of the special consumer tax on heating fuel and gasoline, which again will become a burden on household budgets because in the initial stage it will increase by around 0.40 euros per ton. 

As for the objective assessment of the real estate properties, the political leadership of the Ministry of Finance is planning it to be aligned with its market prices, so there is no differentiation in order to be able to create a single "prices record", which will at all times be able to monitor market changes and update the real estate taxes. 

Seven "arrows", ready for launch 

In addition to the above measures, however, the political leadership of the Ministry of Finance already has another seven measures up its sleeve relating to: 

* Change in taxation of tobacco products 
* New tax increases on cars 
* Elimination of certain tax refunds 
* Introduction of a general limit for tax refunds
* Elimination of tax breaks and tax for the benefit of third parties 
* Increasing the criteria for taxation on the basis of declared income by 60 percent for freelance professions 
* Raising taxes on real estate 

It should be noted that the removal of tax relief applies to persons with an annual income of over 30,000 Euros and the amount proposed is to reach 40,000 Euros in order to keep some relief for low and middle-income earners in an attempt to dispel tension and to avoid further turmoil within the ruling party. 

In any case, from the removal of tax exemptions and taxes in favor of third parties, the finance team expects to save nearly 2 billion Euros. 

"Electronic eye" 

To the above "package" need to be added also the changes that are already underway in the system of receipts, according to which more receipts have to be collected in order to avoid the additional tax burden, as well as the electronic declaration of origin of income in which the tax payer´s movable and immovable properties will have to be entered. 

In particular, the electronic "eye" of the tax authorities will, at any given moment, be able to know the amount of bank deposits, investments in shares, bonds and mutual funds, interests in companies of any legal status, properties, swimming pools, cars, motorcycles, boats, high value works of art, the cost of acquisition of these assets, revenues collected from the sale of investments or divestments and living costs, which will have to be reported in detail by each taxpayer in a special form together with the basic income tax form Ε1. 

Hitch 

A problem occurred during the sending of a text message to the General Secretariat for Information Systems from taxpayers who are entitled to exemption from property tax or the payment of a reduced tax of 0.5 euro per sq. m.

It was reported that while many taxpayers had sent the text messages, they arrived at two television channels using the same five-digit number 54160. Senior Ministry of Finance officials stressed that the problems arose because taxpayers did not send the text messages to the correct number. 

From Monday - e-card for receipts 

An end will be put to the "paper kingdom" of receipts on Monday, October 3, with the intrdocution of the electronic card into the life of all taxpayers, who will no longer have to collect receipts, because when using it, everything will be recorded electronically and the General Secretariat for Information Systems will be immediately notified. 

Despite the fact that this year the existing regime in receipts remains unchanged, as all changes are envisaged for 2012, which will be declared in 2013, taxpayers will still have to collect more receipts, namely 25 percent of personal income or 15,000 Euros each, to avoid "punishment" in the form of payment of additional tax amounting to 10 percent of the difference. 

It should be noted that the use of the electronic card will be voluntary and will facilitate citizens in the collection of receipts in a manner that ensures integrity and confidentiality of data. In order to use the particular opportunity and to protect personal data and transactions, the electronic card will be anonymous. 

Citizens will be able to obtain it from 27 banks and two companies, and then it will be the taxpayer´s responsibility to inform the General Secretariat for Information Systems about the electronic card he has received. 

Notification can be made either over the Internet or through a text message.