New Tax Rates in Greece As From The Beginning of 2013 – Part I

After the parliament approved some unpopular measures of increasing its own incomes, which is one of the main requirements for obtaining an international financial help, the households in Greece should go through higher taxes and more expensive electricity in the New Year. During the parliament session, the majority of the MPs approved the new legislation, which can be considered as a next assault on the middle class, according to the opposition. The main texts of the law were approved by 163 from total 300 MPs.
Many tax reliefs are removed by the new measures in Greece. The tax burden on properties and the corporate profits are being increased and a tax of the capital profits from a trade of shares is being introduced. By doing this the government hopes to collect an extra amount of 2.5 Billion Euro during this and next year.
The tax reform is a part of the whole package of economies in amount of 13.5 Billion Euro, accepted by Athens in November at the request of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The acceptance of the tax texts in the parliament was one of the requirements for Greece to receive 14.7 Billion Euro further rescue loans until the end of March. This sum will be over the already received 34.3 Billion Euro, granted by the creditors last month. At the same time it is expected the reform to press further the household budgets, which enters its sixth consecutive year of recession. The extrapolations for the year 2013 are the Gross Domestic Product to further reduce with 4.5%.
The opposition in the parliament attacks the law as another attempt of the government to punish the suffering middle class, instead of pursuing the wealthy people, who were hiding taxes.
The tax on the corporate income increases from 20 to 26 percent, but at the same time it decreases the taxation of distributed dividends from 25 to 10 percent. The capital profit from trading on the Athens Stock Exchange will be taxed with 20% from July, and the tax on the interest of the bank deposits jump from 10% to 15%. (to be continued)