By G. Kouros
Only 35 percent out of an expected six million tax returns have been submitted so far via the Greek tax bureau’s online system (Taxis), raising concerns among the finance ministry’s leadership ahead of this month’s deadline.
Despite almost daily warnings by the ministry towards taxpayers to meet their obligations, in tandem with looming fines in case of late returns, the specter of a system failure from a sudden end-of-the-moth surge in filed online returns is evident.
This has been the case repeatedly in Greece over the past few years, as taxpayers and their accountants often wait until the last possible moment to file a return, with the increased online traffic merely knocking out the tax bureau’s system for hours and days on end.
In order for all expected tax returns to make the June 30 deadline, an average of 155,000 returns need to be electronically filed daily, or just more than 3.878 million returns in all.
Fines in place include the minimum 100 euros for a taxpayer that isn’t obliged to keep accounting books; 250 euros for a taxpayer with basic level accounting books; 500 euros for taxpayers fielding advanced accounting books, as well as a 0.73-percent monthly penalty interest rate on the money owed to the tax bureau.
