Customers of all sorts of businesses in Greece will be able to walk away without paying if they don't receive a record of their transaction, under rules set to take effect soon, an exclusive report of the Wall Street Journal website states today (November 9, 2012).
Restaurants -- seen as among the worst offenders, mainly because much of their business is transacted in cash -- will be required to add a notification about the right to refuse payment to their menus. Everyone -- from doctors and lawyers to plumbers and taxis -- also is liable to be stiffed if they don't give receipts.
The new regulations are the latest effort by the cash-strapped Greek government to crack down on rampant tax evasion -- adding an extra incentive for businesses to issue receipts. The receipts produce a record of the transactions, and authorities use that record to calculate taxes owed by the business.
"With this measure, the consumer is protected and a bold step is taken against tax evasion," said Athanasios Skordas, Greece's deputy development minister.
Tax dodging costs Greece about 28 billion euros ($36 billion) a year -- an amount equivalent to roughly 15 percent of Greece's annual economic output -- according to a recent study conducted by Margarita Tsoutsoura of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment