By G. Palaitsakis
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Nearly one million self-employed professionals, craftsmen and owners of SMEs in Greece are on the "downside" of a decision, by the outgoing Tsipras government, to abolish a pre-legislated reduction in the annual tax-free income threshold, which was set to come on line on Jan. 1, 2020.
The reason is that while the looming austerity measure was abolished - without creditors' consent - a series of tax breaks billed as positive countervailing measures linked to the former were also ditched.
The tax breaks that fell by the wayside included a reduction in the lowest income tax rate, from 22 to 20 percent, as well as abolition of a special "solidarity tax" imposed on gross incomes of up to 30,000 annually, along with a significant reduction on incomes of between 30,000 and 65,000 euros.
