Galery

1

Over 100 000 forms sent the main information office at the Ministry of Finance to contracting  and commercial companies to include in the tax amnesty. The PASOK government hopes to bring at least € 700 million into the treasury from small and medium companies in the country by the end of the year relying on the guilty conscience of entrepreneurs who would prefer to pay a certain amount of money instead of being subjected to tax inspection.
 
Paying a certain amount (based on the turnover of the specific business) to the treasury will exempt the summoned from tax inspections and revealment of any financial offences made in the 2000-2009 period. Taxpayers have to pay 20% of the specified amount when included in the process and then the contributions could not be less than 500 euros for large amounts. The deadline for submission of documents and payment of the first installment is November 18 this year, while for private entrepreneurs and companies that have inaccurate data found the deadline is November 29.

According to the law, the tax amnesty rate for companies is lower than for free professions. Tax authorities have calculated amounts not less than  € 300 to € 700 for small and medium enterprises depending on the category of the company while for the free professions this amount will vary between € 700 and € 1000. "The existing sole traders and companies have no available funds, demand has declined, turnover fell and the business is trying to survive," said the accountant  Sakis Costopoulos especially for GRReporter. He stressed that the tax amnesty payment terms (12 months) are very short and the companies that have their documentation in order would prefer to be inspected than to pay high amounts.

The major government purpose is to bring another € 16.2 billion till the end of 2010 in order to meet the financial plan targets set at the beginning of the year. This is an obligation stipulated in the Memorandum of financial support by the EU and IMF which provided Greece € 110 billion if it improves its economy and reduces its deficit to 3% of GDP by the end of 2013. These 700 thousand euros from the tax amnesty are still drop in the ocean because the government should collect approximately € 5.4 billion per month at this rate.