By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

2/3 euros that were written in the State notebooks as owed in the first 9 months of this year came from VAT and Income Tax. Of the 6.7 billion euros of the new debts:

– 2.5 billion euros came from VAT

– 1.7 billion euros from income tax

– 449 million euros from property taxes

The rest comes from non-tax debts (loans, court costs, accruals, etc.)

In the first 10 months, Greek taxpayers owed the tax office 108.5 billion. euros, 2.4 billion euro more compared to the corresponding period last year. About €1/4 of this is considered uncollectible.

If we add to these the 48.8 billion euros of debts to the KEAO – increased by 1.7 billion euros from last year – then the total debts of individuals and businesses in tax office and insurance funds exceed 157 billion. euro. Together with the loans, the total private debt of the Greeks reaches 283 billion. euros, i.e. 119% of the country’s GDP.

From the analysis of the data, it appears that although the debts owed to the tax office are increasing, the debtors (natural and legal persons) are decreasing. Their total amounts to 3.93 million euros, about 87,000 less than last year. The decrease in debtors is observed mainly in the very small debt categories. Especially in debts up to €500, debtors are approximately 112,500 less. For larger debts, the interest rates have increased compared to last year, as can be seen in the table. It is characteristic that the “millionaires” profited by 414 VAT numbers:

DEBT NUMBER OF DEBTORS 2024 DIFFERENCE 2023

<€50 736.598 -9.453

€50-€500 1,367,621 -103,006

€500-€10,000 1,460,777 +4,732

€10,000-€100,000 315,888 +17,816

€100,000-€1m 45,943 +2,798

>€1m 9.612 +414

This small number of about 9,600 debtors (not even 2.5% of the total) owes about 83 billion. euros, i.e. approximately 77.5% of the total debts to the tax authorities. On the contrary, 90.7% of debtors are concentrated in debts up to €10,000, but their total overdue balance, 3.93 billion euros, barely exceeding 3.6% of total debts.

The debts of natural persons make up 38.5% of the total, reaching 41.8 billion. euros, while the debts of legal entities amount to 66.7 billion. euro amount corresponding to 61.5% of the total. And as one might suspect, the vast majority of small debts up to €10,000 (88%) come from natural persons and the vast majority of large debts over €1 million. (69%) comes from businesses.

It is unfortunate that out of all these debts, only 4.4%, approximately 3.6 billion. euro is in regulation. 17.4% of settled debts concern debts from €500 to €10,000, which is the category with the most settlements.