By G. Kouros
[email protected]
A "glitch" in terms of undeclared company and business bank accounts is reportedly behind the lack of a specific date for debuting Greece's first-ever "tax receipt lottery", although it is anticipated by the end of the month.
As with other countries, the measure aims to combat Greece's extremely high rates - by western standards - of tax evasion at the cash till.
Company and business accounts are absolutely necessary for the "tax receipt lottery" to function, as such, accounts of all types of businesses offering electronic transactions - credit, debit cards, e-banking etc. - must be declared. Data from businesses' transactions are, essentially, the "raffle numbers" of individual taxpayers, which will be selected via an electronic lottery on a regular basis.
One of the provisions included in the framework allows taxpayers to learn the number of receipts to be included in a lottery, as well as their individual serial numbers, via a special tax bureau platform. Additionally, lottery winners are informed by an electronic message sent to their online (TAXISnet) account. Only individuals with Greek tax bureau codes, and over the age of 18, are eligible lottery participants, and obviously, winners. In other words, foreign tourists are excluded.
If the initial "tax receipt lottery" actually does take place in late November, then it will be based on transactions that took place the previous month, October 2017.
Another lottery is scheduled with transactions that took place between January and September 2017.
Some 10 million euros are budgeted as the lottery prize pool for this year's drawings.
For a total of up to 100 euros in recorded transactions, 100 e-raffle tickets will correspond to each taxpayer; from 101 to 500 euros in transactions, each e-raffle will correspond to two euros; from 501 to 1,000 euros, one e-raffle per every three euros; for more than 1,001 euros, one e-raffle ticket will correspond to every four euros.
As previously reported, every month 1,000 e-lottery winners will receive 1,000 euros per win, a sum that is tax-free and immune from seizure by third parties, including the state.
