By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

A committee of wise men to examine the issue of proof of living will be set up early next year by the Deputy Minister of Finance Haris Theocharis. The aim of the committee is to examine the injustices of the system – which are many – and to give guidelines on how the Ministry of Finance should proceed given the government’s pre-election commitment to reduce them by 30% from 2025.

Given that the new tax bill, which is expected to be submitted for public consultation soon, significantly limits the activation of presumptions, specifically from €741 million to €135 million, the committee will emphasize the burden borne by employees and pensioners.

As he explained to official of the Ministry of Finance, the limitation of the presumptions by 30% does not mean an equal horizontal reduction. Otherwise we wouldn’t need the commission, he pointed out. On the contrary, the distortions and injustices of this taxation system will be examined. For example, they told us how fair an I.X. worth €10,000 to have a usage fee of €5,000 or how right it is to breathe and be charged with €3,000 (obviously he means the presumption of living for the unmarried). In the past, some obvious cases in which students are caught in the light of presumptions will be the first phase of the reduction.

One of the first major objections raised by the market itself is that the assumptions were applied at their current values ​​for the first time in 2010 and have not been adjusted since. 13 years in Greece with 3 memoranda constitute an eternity.

The presumption of principal residence starts from €40/sq.m. for surfaces up to 80 sq.m. and reaches €400/sq.m. for surfaces over 300 sq.m. Whether it is privately owned, leased or freely given is not taken into account at all.

The calculation of the presumption for country houses it is based on 12 months, while it is clear that its use is for a shorter period.

For cars the presumption increases according to cubic capacity and age. Its use is not considered, only the months of possession. It is certain that the “wise” will identify more.

In any case, the data show that every year 1 in 4 taxpayers is not taxed with their real income but the imputed one. The same data show that the overwhelming majority of “victims” of the presumptions are employees and pensioners who are NOT the obvious answer to the question “Who evades taxes”.

The latest figures available showed that around 1,750,000 taxpayers paid tax based on their assets such as real estate, cars, swimming pools, yachts and not what actually went into their pockets. So instead of the €3.1 billion they declared, they were taxed three times as much.

Of these, 1.1 million taxpayers or 2/3 were employed and retired. Only 100,000 were farmers and about 146,000 self-employed.

The largest discrepancy between declared and assumed income was shown by income earners. They declared only €205m, they were taxed almost tenfold, €2.1bn.