Finance ministry officials are considering the mandatory installment of an application in cash registers across the country that will cancel transactions, a measure ostensibly aimed at reducing the still “Olympus-sized” mountain of tax evasion in Greece.
According to reports, the relevant deputy finance minister was in the German federated state of Brandenburg recently to examine just such an application, which the state has mandated for cash registers there.
Brandenburg officials have reportedly promised to supply the Greek finance ministry with technical specifications to create and install such a mechanism.
No word was provided, however, on how mistakes or cancelled purchases will managed.
The next step in efforts to combat tax evasion in Greece will be the electronic connection of wholesalers’ transactions with the tax bureau’s Taxis system, in order to track VAT remittances in transactions between businesses.
Conversely, the ministry is considering an abolition of the obligation on the part of businesses to send regular written vendor-customer statements to the tax bureau, a time-consuming and bureaucratic measure that will become obsolete with the electronic connection with the tax office.
