Greek wage earners managing to scrape 1,000 euros per month in earnings will no longer be privy to tax breaks according to the third bailout. The new tax index hopes to line its coffers by 300 million euros by attacking the wages of lower income earners who manage to scrape 12,000 euros per annum – and possibly even 9,000 euros if necessary.

The Ministry of Finance has yet to make its final decisions on the new tax to apply to wage earners who get even one euro over the 12,000-euro per annum level. Those affected may end up paying an additional 2,100 euros in income tax per annum as they will be taxed for the entire amount they earn and not just the excess over 12,000 euros.

Pracitically, this means that around 3 million wage earners that now earn less than 12,000 euros (or 9,000 euros if the government is forced to seek more funds) will not pay any additional income tax for 2016 whereas there will be raids made into the incomes of the other 3,5 million tax payers who will need to collectively offer the state over 20 bln euros (more than 5,000 euros per person).