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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-02-27
CONTENTS
[01] Troika report blasts tax administration's weaknesses
[01] Troika report blasts tax administration's weaknesses
AMNA -- The Greek tax administration has great weaknesses in its battle
against tax evasion and collecting overdue tax debt, a report by the
International Monetary Fund and the European Commission said on Wednesday.
The report, on the country's tax administration condition, said there
was a shortage of infrastructure, a large shortfall in personnel to
conducting tax inspections and collecting overdue tax debt and a lack
of incentives to mobilizing human resources.
The report stressed that tax departments such as tax inspection and
overdue tax collection were understaffed, most inspectors working in tax
agencies for large enterprises did not have their own desk and computer,
a wage for a fresh-comer inspector was just 700 euros, while it urged
a strengthening of the responsibilities and independence of a public
revenue secretary-general.
The report noted that a tax inspection on 765 cases of large tax
debtors confirmed an overdue tax debt of 16.4 billion euros in 2012,
but tax agencies collected only 80.53 million euros, while the tax
agency collected 1.099 billion euros in overdue tax debt last year,
from a target of 2.0 billion euros.amna
It also noted that a large part of overdue debt
could not be collected as it was owed by enterprises
which have bankrupted. mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#0F1419;mso-ansi-language:EN-US; The IMF/Commission report
said a lack of personnel limited tax inspections to only 25 pct of
scheduled inspections in the year. It also recommended stricter measures
towards improving tax administration such as stricter penalties. The
report noted that a significant problem was a large delay in VAT returns
due to time-consuming inspections in the sector. The state did not return
VAT sums worth 1.74 billion euros last year.amna
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