The Greek authorities’ process of auditing suspected tax evaders is very slow, while the number of potential tax evaders is reaching 1.38 million.
According to a report in Greek newspaper “Kathimerini,” financial prosecutor Panayiotis Athanasiou has written a 25-page report describing the inability of existing tax-auditing mechanisms and the inherent weaknesses of the Greek tax system to pinpoint potential tax evaders.
The number of possible tax evaders is so large that it would take 30 years to audit them all under the existing auditing system and pace, tax officials estimate. However, the government is expecting substantial revenues from auditing the 1.38 million suspects.
Greek authorities admit that the auditing process is moving at a snail’s pace. Out of the 2,062 names on the well-known Lagarde List, 478 have been investigated so far, and this list is the fastest moving.
The Greek government also has a list of 54,246 people who sent funds abroad from 2009 to 2012 and just 588 of them have been investigated. There is also the so-called Luxembourg list, a list of Greeks with large properties in the UK and 65 CDs with names of individuals with large deposits in Greek banks from 2000 to 2012.
So far there have been probes on just 35 names from the Luxembourg list. The pace is equally slow for Greeks who bought properties in the UK in the last few years. The list contains 306 names and just 32 have been investigated so far. As for the 65-CDs list, probe orders have only been issued for 61 people, and bank account and property confiscation orders for just 34.
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