[AMNA]
Greece lowers the percentage of taxes in terms of GDP and converges with the eurozone average, while increasing its dependence on indirect taxes and especially value-added tax.
It still applies a completely different taxation mix to its citizens to the rest of Europe, insisting on collecting the largest part of revenue from VAT and not from income tax, which entails greater proportionality and social justice.
Over the years, the burden of indirect taxes in the overall mix is expected to grow further as the government makes it clear that from now on any fiscal space created by 2027 from curbing tax evasion will be used for reducing direct taxation, benefiting taxpayers’ pockets.
Taxes on products – including VAT and consumption levies – account for 14.3% of GDP in Greece, about four percentage points more than the eurozone average. This ratio has remained essentially unchanged since 2019, although the denominator of the fraction (i.e. GDP) has increased. The same has happened with the numerator, as the increase in prices in an environment of very high rates as well as the explosion of electronic payments (combined with measures against tax evasion) have brought many extra billions of euros into state coffers.