Corruption in Greece
Tax evasion was described by Greek politicians as "a national sport"—with up to €30 billion per year going uncollected, according to a 2012 estimate.
In Ottoman-occupied Greece tax resistance became a form of patriotism,[12][13] and sometimes a condition for survival, while the corruption was widespread among the officials of the empire, especially during its later centuries.
Tax evasion was, however, a larger problem among the high-ranking officials, who were accustomed to being unchecked by the Ottomans and sought to preserve that status in the Greek state.
A rapid increase in government revenues through implementing a more effective tax collecting system has been recommended.
Implementing the proper reforms, is however estimated to be a slow process, requiring at least two legislative periods before they start to work.
[2] A study by researchers from the University of Chicago concluded that tax evasion in 2009 by self-employed professionals alone in Greece (accountants, dentists, lawyers, doctors, personal tutors and independent financial advisers) was €28 billion or 31% of the budget deficit that year.
[24] The former Finance Minister of Greece, Evangelos Venizelos, was quoted as saying "Around 15,000 individuals and companies owe the taxman 37 billion euros".
[29] According to this practice, sums of money are stuffed in the files and passed across the desk to secure appointments, documents approval and permits.
[36][citation needed] The OECD, the Greek government and the European Commission, developed a project to fight corruption, the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP).
[37] In April 2017, the country's health ministry announced an electronic platform designed to tackle corruption in the healthcare system.
[43] The Forokarta is a "tax card" proposed by the government of Greece in August 2011, which would be used to facilitate collection of receipts for purchases; this would allow the Greek finance ministry to clamp down on rampant tax evasion[44][45] by comparing individuals' spending to their income, and by comparing business' actual revenues to their accounts.
By January 2017, taxpayers were only granted tax-allowances or deductions when payments were made electronically, with a "paper trail" of the transactions that the government could easily audit.
[48][49] By 28 July 2017, numerous businesses were required by law to install a point of sale (POS) device to enable them to accept payment by credit or debit card.
[50] The Greek government has not completed an investigation of a list of 1,991 persons purported to hold accounts with Swiss bank HSBC that it received in 2010 from former French finance minister Christine Lagarde.
Instead, Greek authorities arrested Kostas Vaxevanis, journalist and editor of the weekly magazine Hot Doc, who published the "Lagarde list".
[54] Following expulsion from his party PASOK, he received a one-year suspended sentence for misdemeanour over his handling of the infamous “Lagarde list”.
[56] Mr Vaxevanis said he thought the government had not acted on the list because it included friends of ministers, businessmen and powerful publishers.
