The tax bureau is launching sweeping reviews of unaudited tax cases from 2011 in order to beat the five-year statute of limitations, which expires at the end of this year.
The governor of the Independent Authority for Public Revenues, Yorgos Pitsilis, has instructed state auditors to handle as many major cases as possible before year’s end, in time to beat the statute of limitations, according to a report in the daily Ta Nea.
The auditors are also reviewing 2006 cases for which supplementary evidence has been received from abroad.
In the coming weeks, tax auditors will be mailing certified letters to taxpayers, notifying them, with the order number and the date it was issued, that they have been selected for an audit.
Sweeping audits begin
Among the files that will be carefully reviewed are those of about 100 taxpayers whose names appear on the so-called Lagarde list of tax evaders and avoiders, and for whom supplementary evidence or substantial indications of major tax evasion has been collected.
This week an encyclical will be issued that details the criteria for prioritising cases, based on a Council of State decision that auditors cannot extend the statute of limitations on audits to ten years, even if fresh evidence of bank deposits abroad has been found.
The finance ministry projects that auditors will certify about 2.2 billion euros in taxes on very wealthy taxpayers, of which only 131 million euros are expected to reach the public coffers.
Between 2013 and 2017, certified debt from audits of “big” taxpayers amounted to 8.6 billion euros, with receipts barely reaching 1.2 billion euros.
The highest percentage of receipts was 30 percent in 2013, when 380 million euros in tax debt was confirmed, of which 114 million euros was collected.
