Greece and its European creditors on Tuesday sought to play down fears that Athens would default on a payment to the International Monetary Fund next week despite mounting evidence that the country is running out of cash.
VAT rates, pension reform as well as fiscal targets remain open issues, a Greek government official said, and the two sides disagree over the size of the fiscal gap for this year: The lenders put it at €2 billion, while Athens estimates it at under €1 billion.
In an effort to stop systemic tax evasion, the Greek government has proposed a significant number of new tax measures:
- Solidarity Levy: this levy applies to all taxpayers with net income of over €30,000 and is calculated on the net income of the taxpayer.
- The single property tax (ENFIA) will apply, for 2015 at least.
- Higher taxes on luxury goods, such as cars and swimming pools.
- Legalizatiuon of undeclared money with a 15% levy on undeclared foreign deposits, and a 30% rate on undeclared deposits in domestic banks, as an enticement for tax-dodgers to legalize their assets.
- Taxpayers whose net income is between €20,000 and €25,000 are subject to an increase of rate of net income declared.
Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told reporters on Tuesday that new tax measures to plug a projected €3bn fiscal gap this year were being considered. He also said that the government may impose a small levy on bank ATM withdrawals to give incentive to use credit cards.
The Greek finance ministry totally disowned Varoufakis's proposal - less than a few hours after it was announced - “taxing bank transactions was proposed at the Brussels talks. The finance ministry disagreed and the proposal was withdrawn,” the ministry said in a statement.
Greece, which is running out of cash, hopes to reach a deal by the end of the month.
US to put pressure on EU at G7 to deal with Greece
Finance ministers of the G7 (United States, Canada, Britain, Japan, Germany, France and Italy) meet on Thursday and Friday in Dresden, Germany. While Greece is not formally on the agenda, the country's financing and debt problems are likely to be discussed on the sidelines of the meeting, Reuters reported.
The United States is expected to press Europe to reach a deal on Greece. An official told Reuters:
“I would expect the Americans to put pressure on the Europeans in Dresden about Greece. The Americans are stressing the geopolitical risks and telling us we have to find a solution, that we cannot really put the euro area and Europe at risk because of Greece.
If Greece for some reason were to turn to Russia and Moscow would get involved more, they could get too much influence inside NATO and inside the EU when it comes to policies towards Russia”.