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Until last year, Greeks earning 12,000 euros or less per year did not pay taxes. But that was subsequently reduced to 8,000 euros, and then 5,000 euros.
There is an additional “solidarity” tax on Greeks, which ranges from 1 percent to 4 percent depending on income, and is applied before any other deductions.
As a result, the top marginal tax rate has gone from 45 percent to 55 percent in the last year.
By this time last year, the tax collection office had sent out 2.2 million bills, representing a cumulative tax bill of 200 million euros. This year, they’ve sent out only 900,000 bills, thus far, for a total of 820 million euros.
(The delay in sending out tax bills is due to the creation of a new property tax via electric bills, which occupied the tax collection office for the first part of the year, and delayed the preparation of income tax bills.)
The yield on the tax bills has historically been roughly 90 percent, but with the dramatic rise in taxes over the last year, and the destructive recession, which has lead to massive job losses , there are concerns the yield this year will be lower. Additionally, salaried Greeks have historically paid their tax bills in advance through withholdings in their paychecks, but many of the new taxes were imposed retroactively, meaning many Greeks will have to write checks to the government.
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