untitled design

Tax Freedom Day 2022: Half Year Working on Paying Taxes and Contributions

Until yesterday we were working to pay the annual taxes, levies and the budget deficit. As of today we are working for a living.

This is, in simple language, the meaning of Tax Freedom Day, a study which is being prepared for the 8th consecutive year in Greece by the Center for Liberal Studies – Markos Dragoumis (KEFiM). The Minister of Development and Investments, Adonis Georgiadis, comments on the conclusions of this year’s report: it is a report that “comes to confirm that the government of Mr. Mitsotakis is on a stable trajectory of reducing taxes and insurance contributions”, he notes, among other things.

In detail, “for 181 of the 365 days of the year we worked this year to pay taxes and contributions to the state, with Tax Freedom Day coming up on July 1. If you include the budget deficit of 2022, which future generations will be asked to pay , then we would have to work until July 20 to pay taxes, levies and deficits,” the report’s introductory note notes.

From there, “compared to last year in 2022 we worked 2 days less to pay taxes and contributions, as according to the accounting data of ELSTAT, in 2021 we worked for the state 183 days (Tax Freedom Day 2021 was the 3 July)”.

The imprint of the memorial decade falls heavily, as “from 2010 to 2020, 25 additional working days were added for the state, an increase that is the second largest among 28 developed European economies”.

Another conclusion is that, as the report claims, “in 2020 Greece had one of the largest tax burdens in Europe, while at the same time registering a high size of the underground economy (7th worst performance), low business tax competitiveness (8th worst performance), high inequality (7th worst performing) and a high percentage of citizens below the poverty line (9th worst performing) among the 29 developed European economies examined”.

Also studying the forecasts of the introductory report of the Budget, the editors of KEFIM come to some more findings for the current year, such as “the total revenue from taxes and insurance contributions in 2022 is expected to reach Euro 76.2 billion, which distributed as follows: Euro32 billion from indirect taxes (i.e. 42% of total tax and social security contributions revenue), Euro17.8 billion from direct taxes (i.e. 23.4% of total tax and social security contribution revenue), Euro26.1 billion from social security contributions (34.3% of tax and social security contribution revenue), and Euro170 million from capital taxes (an amount corresponding to 0.2% of tax and social security contribution revenue).

On the Day of Tax Freedom, the Minister of Development and Investments, Adonis Georgiadis said: “This year’s report of KEFIM, like the corresponding reports of other organizations and bodies, comes to confirm that the government of Mr. Mitsotakis is on a steady path of tax reduction and Consistent with its ideology and programmatic commitments, it strategically chooses to respond to the transitory but unprecedented double crisis, war and pandemic, and with tax breaks of a permanent nature, precisely to support the productive tissue together with of course the income, especially of the most vulnerable Our orientation is non-negotiable: the more the economy improves and the available fiscal space increases, the more we will reduce taxes and social security contributions, activating a healthy cycle of production and development in the Greek economy”, Assured Mr. Georgiadis.

On the part of KEFIM, its president Alexandros Skouras observed that “despite the reductions in taxes and contributions that the government has implemented, it is clear that the problem of overtaxation remains. Greek taxpayers continue to pay a very expensive bill to the state every year and they remain disappointed by the quality of service it returns to them”.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular