A levy out of the blue. Imposed on computers, tablets, smartphones, cameras and scanner machines. Last Thursday, the Greek government lawmakers voted in favor of the legislation brought by Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou. The usual idiots of Greek consumers will have to pay 2% -6% more on taxes. Just like that. When governments promise no more taxes, rest assured that tax will come in form of levies. This is what has been happening since beginning of the
In a last minute intervention Minister Koniordou changed the levy rate from one percent of the total value to two percent. At the same time, she was supposed to withdraw the levy from the smartphones but she did not do it. She merely did not specify the levy rate on smartphones.
The new tax, the so-called “tablet levy” of 2% will be imposed on any appliance with a RAM memory exceeding 4GB.
A levy of 6% will be imposed on devices recording image and sound as well as electronic storing discs of more than 1Tetrabyte (TB).
A levy of 4% will be imposed on photocopy machines, scanners, photocopy paper and hard disc of up to 1 TB.
The purpose of the tax is to collect 100 million euros that will go to the so-called “copyright holders” like songwriters, singers, film makers etc in Greece.
55% of the levy will go to creators, 25% to performers and 25% to producers of sound and image.
However, in creditors’ language this is a levy for the benefit of third parties. Something that the bailout agreement has set to abolish.
EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said on Monday that the Commission is examining the issue in order to check whether this third party levy complies with the bailout agreement.
Whether you call it tax or levy the truth is that in end effect the sum of tax/levy will be more than 1/4 of the retail price. All these devices have a Value Added Tax of 24%. Now you can start adding: 26% tax on computers and tablets, probably 30% tax on digital camera and 28% tax on my scanner/print machine.
According to media reports on Wednesday, the levy on smartphones has been withdrawn ‘due to legal issues with smartphones companies.’ However, the information has not been officially confirmed yet.
Greek consumersto pay 65 million euros per year
The usual idiots of Greek consumers will have to pay 2% -6% more on taxes for e-devices the government practically force them to buy and use in order to be able to perform important interactions with the state like filing income declarations.
New levies just like that. Just like that? Not exactly. Beginning of the year, a scandal around the Organization for the protection of Copyright Rights for copyright holders broke out. Auditors found a “hole” of 50 million euros for just four years and members of the board that were given themselves monthly salaries of five digits per month in the years 2011-2014.
Are we now called to come up for these financial holes, because the state let the board of directors prevail?
At the same time, rest assured that when a Greek government promises no more taxes, a wave of levies is on the way. Temporary Solidarity Tax, temporary Unified Property Tax, a levy on mobile and landlines, a levy on coffee and wine. I lost control of the levies list since 2010. Everything is temporary and lasts forever.
My cat complains about the levy saying she only takes selfies with her friends and that the whole group is not registered as copyright holder, anyway.
I’m 100% sure the next levy will be imposed on the toilet flush used more than 3 times per day. That’s 1 Byte, isn’t it?
PS I’m tired of paying for third parties when no third party pays anything to me. Honestly.
Let’s hope the eu reverses it. It is typical of the Greek communists to put a levy on productive things like computers instead of further increasing taxes on useless things like cigarettes ! Oh wait, of course, the Greek government probably smokes too much to raise the prices 🙂
tax on cigs increased 2x since Jan. in your little logic they can increase taxes on cigs on daily basis.
Like your last comments
A bigger tax on cigarettes makes perfect sense, and a lot more sense than a tax on technology. The price of 20 cigarettes in Greece is a fraction of their price in the UK for example, where (I’m told) you can expect to pay the equivalent of about 20 Euros for a pack of 20. Cigarettes are not a necessity, they are a drug. Increasing the tax on cigarettes will provide a bigger incentive for people to give up, it will reduce the number of smoking related deaths, it will reduce the number of smoking related hospital admissions (saving the health service a lot of money) and it will generate millions in revenue for the government. Smoking is a complete waste of money. It has no benefits at all yet it creates a whole raft of problems. It is a lifestyle choice that is bad for you, bad for the people around you, and (because it consumes scarce health service resources) it’s bad for the country.
The taxes have nothing to do with copyright holders; probably they will never get it. But they have everything to do with the intensification of misery for Greeks, as a reminder that they are now poor, helpless and unable to resist the occupation regime and its local Quisling politicians. It is a psychology-based tax, not a revenue-based one.
Taxes cause poverty, loss of job creation, loss of investment, decline of sales and flight of individuals. The way to make a prosperous economy is to reduce taxation and regulation to draw people in. More government = more poverty and misery for individuals. Taxing cigarettes though is a bad idea for Greece. Too many smokers. If people don’t have their fix, watch the mental health situation skyrocket. Who will pay the bills for people needing to check in due to mental health issues? Sure smoking is unhealthful but pricing it out of existence will cause more economic harm than good.