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A Greek friend once told me that, in Greece, "only idiots pay 100% of the taxes they owe". His perception of his fellow Greeks' attitude towards taxes wasn't w
by beloch 11y ago
A Greek friend once told me that, in Greece, "only idiots pay 100% of the taxes they owe". His perception of his fellow Greeks' attitude towards taxes wasn't wrong. In Greece, tax evasion is endemic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_evasion_and_corruption_in_Greece https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_evasion_and_corruption_in_...
It's hard to be surprised by the financial troubles of a government that is so utterly feckless when it comes to collecting taxes that members of it's own finance ministry are suspected of hiding their funds abroad. It is also hard to have sympathy for Greeks, most of whom apparently view tax evasion as a virtue.
Now that they've burned Germany and the EU, where is Greece going to get the money it can't collect from it's own citizens?
- vacri 11y agoI have also had a Greek friend tell me, well before this crisis started, that tax avoidance was almost a national sport in Greece, and there was a social stigma to paying all your taxes. He said it with a mixture of pride and sadness.