Tax avoidance

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

The government is offering amnesty to all tax dodgers, even those under investigation by prosecuting authorities, therefore writing off very serious tax crimes that normally get punished with huge fines and jail terms between 10 and 20 years.

The agreement signed Wedneday states that information regarding financial accounts will be automatically exchanged between the EU and Switzerland starting 2018.

This step has largely been considered a major breakthrough in the fight against money laundering and tax evasion, as rpeorted by Financial daily.

Online retail giant Amazon said on May 26 it has started declaring sales in four European countries which would now be subject to local taxes, a move that could affect other multinationals under EU investigation for possible tax avoidance.   

The Romanian Agency for Fiscal Administration, ANAF, is to verify whether there are differences between the money declared by the 50 HSBC clients and the amounts found in their accounts in Switzerland, according to media reports on Monday.

Any unreported income will be taxed at 16 per cent, ANAF officials were quoted as saying by Digi24 television. 

Croatia's tax administration and Office for the suppression of corruption and organised crime, USKOK, has given 14 people holding the 20 largest accounts in banks in 19 EU countries ten days to state the origin of the money and confirm if it was taxed.

Around 225 million euro are deposited in the 20 accounts, on which the owners received 6.6 million euro in interest in 2014.

Turkey has faced problem taxing social media companies, said Finance Minister Mehmet ?im?ek. "We believe that social media companies must pay the taxes if they earn money here," he said at a G20 tax event in Istanbul on May 7. 

Greek Parliament was expected to re-examine the cases of the Siemens bribe scandal and the Lagarde list, following an order issued by House Speaker Zoe Constantopoulou on Thursday in her capacity as head of the House's Special Permanent Committee on Institutions and Transparency.

Leonidas Bobolas, CEO of construction firm Ellaktor, said on Wednesday that he contacted authorities to settle a tax issue of his own accord and was not arrested as reports suggested.

Leonidas Bobolas, CEO and Managing Director of ELLAKTOR S.A., is facing the prosecutor for tax evasion. His name appeared on the Lagarde list and he is being questioned for 2 mln euros worth of tax evasion.

No "Lagarde List" idleness on the part of French prosecutors this week, as the heir to the Nina Ricci perfume and fashion fortune was convicted of tax fraud in a Paris court after stashing millions of untaxed euros in a HSBC bank account.