Gov't To Profile Taxpayers Inorder To Tackle Tax Evasion

In its effort to tackle the perpetual tax evasion, the Greek government decided to document the transactions of tax payers, via their bank accounts, credit card payments, phone bills, tuition fees and other such expenses.

As such, the Ministry of Finances is planning to collect the sensitive data directly from banks, insurance companies, education institutes, phone companies, public utilities, etc., wth the aim of creating a financial and consumer profile of each taxpayer.

The data is going to be collected annually and the government expects that after making crosschecks it will be able to prove instances of tax evasion. The information is to be stored on the Taxisnet system (tax system) for a period of six years and then it is going to be destroyed, if it has not been used.

The new proposal will require of banks to provide detailed information on the transactions for loans, credit card payments, issuing of checks and overseas remittances. Also, the new measure will affect everyone, this includes citizens both in the private and public sector and even pensioners.

Specifically:

• the amount of credit and debit interest on deposits and repos acquired during the previous year, and the amount of tax withheld with the details of beneficiaries/co-beneficiaries
• details of bank accounts, which show total annual billing and credit of more than 50,000 euros
• amounts with a remaining start and end of each use of the portfolio value, at a total value exceeding 100,000 euros
• card transactions and payments issued abroad by a credit institution based outside of Greece
• credit transfers, remittances, direct debits and bank checks of their clients (natural and legal persons) for transfers of funds abroad
• proceeds of companies affiliated with them through credit cards.

The government is convinced that the information will financial authorities to determine the assets, property, income and expense habits of each taxpayer in order to establish an asset register, which in turn is going to make taxation simpler.