Hatzidakis: With lower taxes we have more revenue

With a post on his personal Facebook account, the Minister of Finance wanted to comment on what was announced yesterday (21.11.2024) at the special event of the Ministry of Finance and AADE on the facilities developed by AADE in recent years and the new tools that will be put into operation in 2025 to improve the service of the citizen and address it. In detail the publication of Kostis Hatzidakis: “Less taxes on one hand, more tax justice on the other! And therefore, with lower taxes we have more revenue. The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is the first government to have such tangible results in curbing tax evasion. The progress we have made in modernising tax administration and upgrading the service of taxpayers, we presented last night at an event by the Ministry of Finance and the AADE in Zappeion, in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Especially in order to limit tax evasion, more than 430,000 POS connections were implemented within just a few months. We said it, we did it! Against those who questioned us, against the difficulties, against a logic that says that in Greece “this is not done”. This project contributed decisively to the increase in VAT revenue in the first 9 months of 2024 by 11.2% compared with last year. The so-called VAT gap is still limited to half compared to 2017. Moreover, thanks to all the initiatives we are promoting, the additional tax revenues from dealing with tax evasion this year are expected to amount to 1.8 billion euros above the target we set! And this, with lower taxes! Since 2019 we have reduced or abolished over 60 taxes and now we are still reducing 12 in 2025. At the same time, we throw into the battle against tax evasion gradually within the following year the universal application of myDATA for the income-exit declaration, the Digital Customer Register, the Digital Shipping Bulletin and the extension of the Electronic Invoice. And we are moving on to the further modernisation of tax administration with the new single call centre for tax issues, in the 1555 standard, to be put into operation at the end of the first quarter of 2025. The more we digitize tax administration, the more we improve citizen service and strengthen tax and social justice. And the more we adopt modern tax policies, the more we can finally strengthen social policy or even further reduce taxes. So we continue the effort without accounting for political costs or those who believe that nothing changes in this country!