The government appears ready to table a draft bill envisioning almost across-the-board tax increases, worth 3.6 billion euros, in Parliament this week, despite no previous agreement over the package with institutional creditors.
As previously reported in “N”, the draft bill includes various direct and indirect tax hikes, with a prominent measure being a unified tax rate for all types of income (wages, pensions or business profits). On top of the higher income tax rates, a “solidarity” tax remains and will also take a “bite” out of taxpayers’ pockets, rising progressively through the tax brackets to reach 10 percent – on top of income tax indices – for incomes of more than 220,001 euros a year -- which in Greece’s case are very few. The minimum “solidarity tax” rate is 2.2 percent and will affect anyone making even a euro more than 12K a year, and up to 20K.
Taxes on real estate and income generated from properties will also go up, along with indirect hikes on all types of taxes and fees for fuels, car sales, tobacco products, mobile telephony, subscriber television, bank cheques, sports betting and even a tax on overnight hotel stays (roughly a euro per “star” category per stayover), a measure that has generated heated criticism.
