A European Commission report on Greece – released this week – cites a figure of 5.6 billion euros in arrears to the state that the country’s independent public revenues authority must collect in 2019.
The report is the second in the post-bailout “enhanced supervision” regime that the thrice bailed-out country was placed in by European creditors after the third memorandum expired in August 2018.
Some 2.9 billion euros must be collected from the category of past arrears to the state, mostly owed to the tax bureau up until the last day of 2018, whereas 2.7 billion euros is calculated as the collectoin goal from new arrears created in 2019. On average, 10 billion euros in arrears to the state are confirmed every year in Greece.
The independent authority, itself a memorandum-mandated “prior action” to ensure the autonomous structure and leadership of the state’s revenue collection body, has announced a three-pronged strategy for meeting the target: continued confiscations of incomes, deposits and moveable assets of hundreds of taxpayers; instalment plans to cover arrears and withholding rebates.
