Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-12-14

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] New powers for tax office in draft property tax bill

[01] New powers for tax office in draft property tax bill

The new laws will allow tax authorities to seize both salaries "held by third parties" and deposits, in order to collect overdue unpaid debts to the state. In addition, they will be able to impose provisional seizure on both bank accounts but also cash and valuables held by tax payers in safe deposit boxes at their banks in cases where the tax payer has been proved to have evaded more than 150,000 euros in taxes or failed to issue required tax documents for sums exceeding 300,000 euros.

Other measures included in the draft bill are the "preventative" seizure of deposits before the due date of tax debts, in cases where the tax office deems there is risk of non-payment.

Through these measures, the finance ministry aims to increase the efficiency of current policies for collecting overdue debts to the state, which are estimated at around 62 billion euros, of which 15 billion euros are collectable.

The ministry considers this measure a top priority and has already set up the electronic system through which banks will be obliged to seize and send the amounts owed to the State from their clients' bank accounts, upon receiving a relevant request from tax offices.

Discussion of the draft bill began before Parliament's Economic Affairs Committee on Saturday, which voted in favour of using emergency fast-track procedures to process the draft bill (20 votes in favour and 17 against). As a result, the second reading of the bill will be brought forward to next Tuesday.

The proposal prompted incensed reactions from the opposition parties, which argued that this left insufficient time for discussion and to make changes.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras insisted on the fast-track process, however, on the grounds that the property tax measures had already been extensively discussed. This was disputed by the opposition, which said the debate had taken place with the troika representing Greece's lenders and the parties supporting the government only. Both the opposition but also the junior coalition party PASOK, meanwhile, objected to the inclusion of measures not related to the new property tax system, urging the finance ministry to withdraw them.

The committee will meet in two sessions on Saturday, while on Sunday morning it will hear the testimony and observations of relevant agencies, followed by a discussion of the articles in the evening.

The debate continued with radically different appraisals of the draft bill from the government and the opposition parties, with the former noting that "more people will pay less" for their property and the latter stressing that the sums involved exceeded the ability of citizens to pay.

Speaking in defence of the new property tax, Stournaras pointed out that taxes on property were imposed in all advanced countries and were considered "least damaging" for growth, while the percentage of the tax as a proportion of GDP would remain slightly lower than the European average (1.6 pct versus 1.8 pct). He also pointed out that the 2.65 billion euros in revenue that the tax was expected to raise had already been approved in the 2014 budget.

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