Tax “tsunami” drowns Greeks

Tax office performed 1,000 seizures per day for February

A large number of Greek taxpayers and households are unable to pay their taxes, as hyper taxation has generated 2.6 billion new debts towards the state. Only in the first two months of 2017 a little under 34,0000 home owners were faced with enforcement measures on salaries and properties. Of the 2.6 billion new debts to the tax office, 1 billion accounted for the month of February alone. As daily newspaper Kathimerini reports, a tsunami of enforcement measures, including salary or pension seizures and property foreclosures has hit 33,933 Greek taxpayers for debts over 500 euros to the state. In February there were 21,231 seizures of either property or money, as newspaper Eleftheors Typos reports. If the first 2-monthly trend of seizures continues throughout the year, this will lead to a rise of over 45% compared to 2016. A total of 4 million taxpayers owe about 94 billion euros to the Greek state, a figure that break the 100 billion euro mark at the end of the year, Kathimerini reports. The large boost in state revenues for th first 30-month term of 2017 was due to older debts and seizures.