Based on the reduction in the budget deficit of the Greek economy

The Commission’s latest autumn forecast report confirms the good progress it is taking, and the high targets it sets for zeroing or even reversing in its coming years. Specifically, with “weapon” the strong primary surpluses the Greek economy is expected to further reduce the budget deficit to 0.1% of GDP in 2025, while in 2026 the general government balance is expected to turn into a surplus of 0.2% of GDP. As the Commission points out, this financial improvement is expected to result from the increase in tax revenue and social security contributions which offset increased expenditure on pension benefits and salaries in the public sector, measures which are also contained in the government programme and have been described in detail by the financial staff. In order to enable this return to the “land of promise” of surplus budgets from which the country has been away for a long time, a steady saving of strong primary surpluses is required to ensure the smooth service of public debt and progressively reduce it, which is achieved as demonstrated by the continuous early repayments of memorandum loans with the next 5 billion euros, is expected within 2025. How primary surpluses are achieved A close look at the budget implementation data shows that massive primary surpluses are a product – essentially – of the constant increase recorded in government revenues, and in particular taxation that are also the core of revenue that fills public funds, while retaining expenditure. Which means that primary surpluses do not fall from the sky, nor do they grow on trees, but are built primarily with the contents of the taxpayers’ pocket. According to the latest data on the implementation of the state budget, in the 10 months of 2024, another over-performance of tax revenue was recorded against the target. This is because tax revenues amounted to EUR 55,319 billion, increased by EUR 3,025 billion or 5.8% compared to the target included in the budget report 2024. This overexecution comes from both the best return on income taxes of natural and legal persons of the previous year received in instalments by the end of February 2024, and the best return on the collection of taxes of this year. Therefore, the excess of tax revenue over the objectives is EUR 2,378 billion. However, income taxation is not the only source of income, as the main pillar for state revenue is indirect taxes, which even classify the country as 2nd place in the EU at the level of tax-income proportional to GDP. In fact, the annual VAT revenue in 2024 is expected to exceed EUR 25 billion, while only four years ago it did not exceed EUR 13 billion. However, in addition to VAT, there are the EICs who are also very high in Greece and are raising us up to the most burdensome tax countries. Overall, the index of indirect taxes to GDP in Greece in 2022 was 19.4%, with the EU average of 13%.