The Ministry of Finances will introduce significant changes to its ‘100 installments’ debt settlement provision, giving in to pressure from Greece’s international creditors.
So far the State has managed to collect over 800 million euros from about 900,000 debtors who may pay off their debts in up to 100 installments or by pay off a lump sum and eliminate surcharges. The IMF, EC, ECB and ESM however pressured for a number of changes.
As such, the existing interest rate has been increased to about 5%. Up to now, the annual interest rate for debts over 5,000 euros was 3%, while for debts up to 5,000 there is no surcharge. Additionally, taxpayer with large debts and are objectively in the position to pay their taxes will have the number of installments slashed by 50%.
The existing legislation does not set out any conditions in fulfilling current tax liabilities. As such, the payment of the outstanding debt or alternatively the integration in the 12 installments fixed settlement is a condition to continue to be covered by the ‘100 installments’ settlement.
