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“N”: Govt continues to collect ‘solidarity tax’ from segments that should be exempt

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By G. Palaitsakis

The current government, similar to Greek governments since 2011, is apparently using five ways to continue to collect a special “solidarity tax” from segments of taxpayers that should, by all accounts, be exempted.

According to an investigation by “N”, the five ways the relevant finance ministry bypasses exemptions include an “irregular” manner in which the tax bureau calculates the taxable income of pensioners over the age of 65; avoiding an inclusion of objective criteria to determine a statement of means and assets; an illegal way of calculating taxable income in cases when assets are justified by the income; an unfair imposition of the solidarity tax on “preferential incomes” of people with a disability of under 80 percent; and finally, imposition of the tax both on taxpayers without dependents, as well as on taxpayers with one or more dependents.