Evidently, this has been going on forever in that ancient country. This story is actually from 2010, but the shananigans still go on today. The cheating is often quite bold. When tax authorities recently surveyed the returns of 150 doctors with offices in the trendy Athens neighborhood of Kolonaki, where Prada and Chanel stores can be found, more than half had claimed an income of less than $40,000. Thirty-four of them claimed less than $13,300, a figure that exempted them from paying any taxes at all.
Such incomes defy belief, said Ilias Plaskovitis, the general secretary of the Finance Ministry, who has been in charge of revamping the country's tax laws. "You need more than that to pay your rent in that neighborhood," he said. He said there were only a few thousand citizens in this country of 11 million who last year declared an income of more than $132,000. Yet signs of wealth abound.
"There are many people with a house, with a cottage in the country, with two cars and maybe a small boat who claim they are earning 12,000 euros a year," Mr. Plaskovitis said, which is about $15,900. "You cannot heat this house or buy the gas for the car with that kind of income."
Ya see? It's not just us trying to stay under the radar. Here's a interesting article about how that government is using AI and Google satellite imagery to be beat the deadbeats...
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We shot the British over a 3% tea tax….”deadbeats”?Taxation is THEFT,and I guess you like being surveilled 24/7/365,Baaaaaaaaaa,baaaaaaa.
ReplyDeleteAt one point I worked for a large, multinational corporation. They had a number of companies under the corporate umbrella. Easily 100K employees. The real-estate company had 7 employees. Every time one of the other companies made a profit, their rent would go up to consume the profits. Employee bonuses were based on company profit.
ReplyDeleteThe masters of making profit disappear is Hollywood. Usually through corporate shells and creative accounting.
The income tax in Athens, Greece can be up to 45%. There is a lot of incentive to get creative.