The bill to be presented to the Greek Parliament by Greek Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani sees the abolition of surcharges on debts to the State and an increase on the amount above which a person may be imprisoned. The regulation of debts to the tax office and social security funds are among the first tax bills to be tabled in the Greek Parliament. According to Greek media, the new bill will abolish the additional 10%, 20% or 30% surcharge imposed on the original debt if a person pays an installment with 2 months, 1 year or 2 years delay respectively. Furthermore, debts will only be charged with an annual interest rate of 8.75% and no additional surcharges. People with debts larger than 1 million euros will also be included in the regulation, while those who owe more than 15,000 euros will have the option to pay in up to 100 monthly installments. At the moment, the law states that the debt must be repaid in 72 installments. At the same time, the bill provides that people will be able to pay less that 50 euros as a monthly installment, which is the current minimum, while the exact amount will depend on each person’s monthly income. The new regulation will also include debts that were overdue until December 31, 2014, while the total annual payments may not exceed 20% of the borrower’s annual income. This percentage increases to 30% if the regulation concerns social security contributions. The amounts included in the regulation will be increased by 0.5% per month, without any surcharge, charge or penalty, while in the case a person can prove that they had no income in the past 12 months, the law enforcement measures that can be taken against the borrower will be suspended for a period of 12 months. Furthermore, the new bill increases the debt amount for which a person can be detained by 10 times, from 5,000 euros to 50,000 euros. The draft law will give a second chance to 3.5 million Greek citizens to settle their debts, while it will also suspend any confiscation. It will also set new responsibilities for the Financial Crime Unit and audit centers. The new bill sees that no tax audits take place in Greek taxpayers’ homes without the presence of a prosecutor and reinforces the Financial Crime Unit’s responsibility, which will be able to perform fiscal and customs audits. Finally, according to the bill, a new customs service will be set up in order to fight corruption and the inefficiency to combat trafficking in petroleum and tobacco products.
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