Greece PM Says Workers, Companies Evade Taxes to Tune of 31 Billion Euro
February 16, 2010 /EIN PRESSWIRE/ As the stalemate over whether or not (or how) the EU will bail out Greece, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou says that one of the country’s biggest problems is home grown: Too many people and companies evade taxes.
According to Bloomberg, Papandreou put the number of uncollected taxes at 31 billion euro, or 10% of Greece’s GDP. Not so coincidentally, Greece’s current deficit is 12.7% of GDP.
EU statistics show that Greece’s revenue from income tax is a paltry 4.7% of GDP, compared to an EU average of 8%. This isn’t a recent trend as tax revenue in Greece has been falling for years even as the country experienced economic growth.
Greece’s three-year deficit reduction plans call for 2.4 billion euro in additional revenue from squeezing tax evaders, which accounts for almost 25% of the entire deficit-reduction package.
Read more about Greece’s tax collection woes at Global Investing Today:
Latest Greece Investing news – http://investing.einnews.com/greece/
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