Giorgos Pitsilis

Two tax inspectors came under attack while checking the books of a pizza restaurant in the seaside village of Platanias near Volos in central Greece on Thursday, with one of the two officials having to be hospitalized with a fractured arm.

As of the last quarter of this year, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue is set to start piloting an online bookkeeping system for companies in a bid to spare Greek enterprises the hefty administrative costs of conventional bookkeeping that compromise their competitiveness, the authority's head Giorgos Pitsilis announced on Thursday.

Giorgos Pitsilis, the head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, has been appointed president of the Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA) for the 2019-2020 period, it was announced Thursday.

The tax administration is planning more than 50,000 inspections around the country from July 1 to October 31, with an emphasis on regions which are witnessing increased tourism traffic.

State revenues exceeded their target last year by at least 420 million euros, according to provisional data for December shared by Independent Authority for Public Revenue Director Giorgos Pitsilis with the agency's employees in a letter.

Pitsilis predicted that the definitive data, due in the coming days, will show an even greater overrun.

Leading Greek officials confirmed at the 20th annual Capital Link Forum in New York on Monday that Greece is well on its way to recovery and vowed that the country will stick to its reform pledges and become a preferred investment destination.

Tax evasion remains rampant in Greece, as raids by tax officers nationwide have shown that 60 percent of businesses audited have violated Greek tax legislation.

Violations include failure to issue receipts, using POS terminals registered in other countries and tampering with cash registers.

The head of Greece's  Independent Authority for Public Revenue admitted on Monday that tax authorities can no longer investigate the so-called Lagarde list for possible tax evaders, following two decisions by the Council of State last year.

In June 2017, the administrative court ruled any tax audits conducted that stretch back beyond a five-year limit are unconstitutional.

After months of delays, the first receipt lottery was conducted on Thursday, with the lucky 1,000 taxpayers set to collect 1,000 euros each in cash next week. The measure is intended to encourage the use of electronic transactions to boost state revenues and contain tax evasion.

Apartments, plots of land, stores and office buildings belonging to people or businesses with debts to the tax authorities will soon be auctioned at prices below those used for tax purposes ("objective values") as the law dictates foreclosure sales at market rates instead of objective values, as in the case of debts to banks.