The Guardian has reported (and such is the significance I do not apologise for the length of the quotation) that:
With Athens's ambitious fiscal consolidation programme now harder to achieve, the hunt for tax evaders has become even more pressing.
For the first time, said Kapeleris, SDOE inspectors will be knocking at the door of the nation's well off - Greeks with huge homes, private pools, superyachts and secret bank accounts abroad.
"All those with inexplicable wealth," he added. "The doctors and lawyers, architects, construction companies, singers, civil engineers … people who have bank accounts with millions of euros, deposits that just don't add up."
Using Google Earth, the unit recently announced it had discovered some 50,000 "undeclared" swimming pools as well as tracing the owners of an estimated 2,500 state-of-the-art pleasure boats moored in marinas around the capital. Politicians with power cruisers costing as much as €1.5m, but which have never appeared on tax returns, have been outed.
Bank accounts abroad have also been targeted as Papandreou, in an unprecedented step, has taken the fight against tax evasion beyond Greek borders.
"We have opened bank accounts in Liechtenstein and plan to open others in Switzerland and the City of London," Kapeleris said. "We have discovered deposits that make the mind boggle, huge amounts that simply do not correspond to professed professional activity."
That is good for Greece. I hope the IMF is giving them the funding they need to pursue this activity.If only the UK Treasury would show the same initiative.
And I also hope that the UK Treasury and UK banks are providing them with all the cooperation they need.
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“And I also hope that the UK Treasury and UK banks are providing them with all the cooperation they need”
Turkeys.
Christmas.
Vote.
For.
Do.
Considering that Greece has just been bailed out with billions of EU money (our money, even if in fairness most was contributed by Eurozone countries, i.e. Germany and France), anything else would be a disgrace.
It was surely the German and other banks who took on the debt who were bailed out.
No, that is probably the next chapter……
I would take Greek Government rhetoric with a pinch of salt
They have been “tough” on tax evaders for donkeys years.
And then done precisely nothing in practice
I know from 1st hand experience
@Carol Wilcox
Yes an no.
Greece’s creditors (most of which must be capital marekt investors rather than banks by the way) definitely benefitted from the bail-out because part of it was used to redeem their claims, and also because it helped to support the value of the claims still outstanding.
But the Greek population at large was also a beneficiary. Greece has a budget deficit in excess of 10% of GDP. Without the bail-out, the treasury would have run out of cash, and the government would simply have shut down. It is hard to imagine, but it was very close to happenign, and it would have been complete anarchy and chaos.
Tax evaders must be made to pay for this, and our government should offer any assistance to achieve this.