The government will soon table in Parliament a legislative amendment regarding the offsetting of VAT debts not only towards the state but also between individuals, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras announced on Monday.
Samaras chaired a meeting at the General Accounting Office with the participation of Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras and Deputy Giorgos Mavraganis.
The measure, which will be put into effect as of autumn and concluded within the year, will address self-employed and businessmen with annual revenues up to 500,000 euros. The measure will later be expanded to those with revenues of more than 2 million euros, thus covering over 85 percent of the transactions in the market.
The prime minister said this measure, which is neutral in terms of taxation, will significantly normalize the market and will be highly reinforcing for SMEs.
Moreover, Samaras announced that authorities will abolish penalties imposed on businesses for not paying VAT to the state while the state owes back money to them. Regarding the payment of the state’s arrears to the private sector, the prime minister said that the arrears should fall to 2 billion euros by the end of 2014.
He also pointed out that significant amounts returned from criminal activities have been deposited in a special account at the Bank of Greece and will be used to cover needs in the areas of Health and Education.
Furthermore, he referred to inactive deposits and estates without a claimant and said that for the first time after 100 years a framework is being established and there is a good use of money while on undue pensions paid by the state, Samaras said that 54 million euros have been identified and 70 percent of that amount has been recovered.
(source: ana-mpa)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
