A desperate jobless father entered the tax office in Rhodes holding in his arms his 1.5-year-old baby. “Take it,” he told the stunned tax officers “I cannot feed it anymore.” A day earlier, the divorced father had found out that the tax office had confiscated 300 euro from his bank account, money that was deposited by the mother for the monthly child’s support.
Once the tax officers informed him that the confiscation was due to outstanding debts to the tax office and that the money could not be returned, the father offered them his child.
The 35-year-old father explained that he was led to a deadlock, since he was unemployed for quite some time. He complained that he was unable to take care of his child without this money and that the state was depriving him from the opportunity to raise his child with dignity.
After the case made the rounds in local and national media, the tax office in Rhodes issued a statement saying that “the bank account was registered as ‘recalcitrant‘ but the account holder had failed to update the status for 2014.”
According to confiscation law for debts to the state, tax offices can automatically grab money from debtors’ bank accounts unless, the accounts have less than 1,500 euro and have been registered as “unconfiscatable’.
Local media report that the head of the tax office promised to return the confiscated amount to the father, however chances are slim due to the notorious Greek bureaucracy.
In Greece of economic and humanitarian crisis, the state is quick in grabbing and confiscated money from the poor and needy debtors. Numbers and “primary surpluses” seem to be more important than human fates and needs.
But when it comes to “big money” and “big debts” the state always finds ways to come clear. Just a couple of days ago, coalition government partners Nea Dimokratia and PASOK passed a regulation through the Parliament, according to which
“40% of total state funding to political parties cannot be confiscated.” The reasoning for this decision is that “political parties are legal entities of public purpose and that they need a minimum assured income to ensure their sustainability.” (reporter.gr)
According to main opposition party SYRIZA, the debts of Nea Dimokratia and PASOK to the banks amount some 270-300 million euros.
Debtors can certainly make arrangements to pay debts to the state but the deal becomes invalid once the debtor misses the payment of one installment. However, Greece’s lenders, the Troika, oppose arrangements of more than 50+ installments.
Odd enough, Education Minister Andreas Loverdos said Thursday that a private educational institution with debts to the state amounting several million euros had made an arrangement to pay installments of just 160 euro per month.
“We will be dead and gone until this gentleman has paid his debts,” Loverdos stressed.
So how could this gentleman make such an arrangement with the tax office, when the Greek government struggles to get the green light from the Troika and facilitate debtors to pay in 75 or 100 payment installments?
In the list of private education institutions(IEK) given to the public by Loverdos, the highest debt to the state is 11 million euros, the majority of debts of the other IEK are in the average two or three million euros.
PS here in Greece, it’s all a matter of good connections and power….
