High Taxation on Fuel and Property-Low Public Revenues

According to a European Commission report published on Monday, Greek citizens are amongst the most overtaxed EU citizens, ranking eighth among the 28 EU countries. Greece ranked 5th regarding real estate taxes and 8th in fuel taxes. However public revenues remain low. Despite high taxation, tax revenues in Greece are comparatively low compared to other EU members. According to figures, Greece’s revenues as a percentage of GDP stand at 33.7%, while in the EU, the percentage stands at 39.4% and in the eurozone at 40.4%. The European Commission estimates that this paradox is due to the extensive tax evasion noticed in Greece in combination with the abrupt decline of the Greek economy, as a result of harsh austerity measures.  A European Commission official stated that despite the reforms that have begun to pay off, Greece remains at extremely low levels as far as tax collection is concerned. Meanwhile, economists in Brussels warn that any tax relief must be focused on vulnerable social groups. Greece is holding the 5th place in real estate taxes, which in 2012 reached 1.4% of GDP, compared to 0.4% in 2010. This places Greece higher than the other two southern European countries, Spain (8th place) and Portugal (12th place), which were also strongly hit by the crisis and were forced to implement painful fiscal consolidation policies.  

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