By T. Tsiros
[email protected]
The latest threat for nearly one million self-employed professionals and tradesmen in the bailout-dependent country apparently relates to last month’s agreement between the leftist Greek government and creditors, with one prior action pointing to an increase in the lowest level used to calculate obligatory social security contributions.
The provision surfaced in the most recent agreement, which was achieved on April 7 with an aim to finally conclude a year-long delayed second review of the Greek program.
In a nutshell, the proposed change in the method used to calculate social security contributions — already considered by most groups representing self-employed professionals as extremely painful — would be based on taxable income in addition to the contributions paid during the previous year. Currently, contributions are based only on taxable income.
The change would come on line as of Jan. 1, 2018.
