Greece to “name & shame” debtors owing over €300K to the state

Greece’s Finance Ministry is determined to collect what belongs to the state and as repayment settlements and other forms of arrangements have apparently failed in pushing debtors to put their hands in their pockets, the ministry will call in the internet cavalry: it will name & shame on the web the names of those debtors owing more than 300,000 euro to tax office or to social security and pension funds.

The provision that it will make mandatory the disclosure of debtors’ names will be included in the bill for “smuggling of tobacco products” expected to be submitted to the Parliament soon.

The provision will affect debtors owing to the tax office more than 300,000 euro and to social security funds amounts more than this. If the debtor owes to the tax office and the social security funds the total amount of debt will be published.

In the wake of this provision, the General Secretariat of Public Revenues has reportedly already sent notification to big debtors calling them to settle their debts by end of the month.

According to daily Efimerida Ton Syntakton, “information indicates that the same bill will provide the mandatory presence of a judge during the tax office audits in the homes of self-employed declaring their home as basis of their business” Currently, only the relevant prosecutors’ order is required.

4,422 businesses owe over €300K to IKA

The state has reportedly already compiled the list of big debtors to Greece’s biggest social insurance fund for the private sector IKA  and is awaiting the end of the month to start publishing the names and the debt amounts on internet.

According to daily Imerisia, the list contains the business names of 4,422 big debtor with each one owing over 300,000 euro to IKA. Among them are:

800 hotels, restaurants, bars, catering services and one canteen.

707 retail and wholesale companies

4 companies that are “inactive” or have ‘moved’ abroad leaving behind huge debts

 297 service companies (cleaning, protection/security, advertising, management and even …tax consulting)

233 construction companies

207 companies from the food and beverage industry

120 publishing and media companies

75 private postal and telecommunications companies

103 educational companies

99 service enterprises, including barbers , beauty treatment and two funeral offices.

These 4,422 companies on the IKA debtors list, are just a 5.36% of the total number of debtors (82,490) whose debts have been “transferred” to the Collection Center of Insurance Contributions. Their debts reach €4.767 billion. IT means that these 4,422 businesses owe 56.67% of the total debt to IKA which is €8.412 billion.

PS If one looks on the sector details of the list, there is hardly one sector without debts to  insurance funds.