– Uncollected Greek Taxes Rise To Record €60 Billion, One Third Of Greek GDP (ZeroHedge, Aug 5, 2013):
While Europe, and especially Germany has been understandably “displeased” with having to provide billions in bailout upon bailout funding to Greece every year starting in 2010, all the more so following recent news that Greece has already spent some 75% of its bank bailout cash with no discernible improvement in its economy to show for it, Europes’ taxpayers will unlikely be any more pleased to learn that as of the end of June, a whopping €60 billion in past due taxes (an all time record) was owed by Greek businesses and individuals to the state. This is an amount that is 20% greater than the entire external cash handed over by the Troika to keep Greek banks afloat, and represents nearly 30% of imploding Greek GDP.
Perhaps instead of spending money on trips by its premier and/or think-tanks on how to mutually assure itself another few billion in Troika cash to plug this budget hole or that, Greece should invest a few grand to buy the ink it needs to print tax forms, streamlining its tax collection department (on those days it is isn’t on strike of course) and generate some real IRR.
Kathimerini has the full story:
Taxpayers’ and businesses’ outstanding debts to the state increased by 3.7 billion euros this year to reach a record 59.77 billion euros at the end of June.
There was an increase of 613 million euros between May and June alone, the general secretariat for public revenues said.
It attributed the rise to the reorganization of the tax administration, delays over offering new payment plans for those with expired debts and the continuing recession and rising unemployment.
Of the total taxes yet to be collected, 21.8 billion euros is owed by individuals and 38.2 billion by businesses.
But why collect overdue taxes and antagonize the Greek taxpaying population (the so-called “professional classes“), when there is a German taxpaying population that can be antagonized, and when Mario Draghi is willing to accept Greek feta and olive oil as money good assets in Europe’s unprecedented ongoing collateral transformation experiment?
– European Crisis Explanation … For Dummies From Greeks (Video):
Pulling no punches and as irreverent as we can imagine, Mr. Panos – the Greek ‘Borat’ – explains (with a somewhat shocking sense of reality) just what the European crisis – most specifically the Greek ‘angle’ – is all about. From taxes, tourists, shadow economies, war retribution, and german-union realities – after watching this clip, everything about Greece will be henceforth clear…except perhaps whether Greece has higher exports of Potassium than Kazakhstan. Enjoy.
One third of CLAIMED GDP.
Therein lies the problem for the Eurozone, China, the US and the western world. All have engaged in the use of Enron Accounting, and all of their claims of wealth have been greatly exaggerated . Now, the truth is coming out. When people start asking for the real money, and it isn’t there, that is when more lies start. In the case of Greece, and most 21st century nations, the fact is simple….the wealth that supposedly generated this great GDP was never there in the first place. A bit like Enron’s false work orders from their shell corporations. All was on paper, no money was there.
The world economy is imploding. It has far too much paper money in circulation in relation to the real wealth generated. Even using their numbers claiming world GDP to be between $50-65 trillion per annum, the money supply far exceeds that amount hundreds of times over.
I cannot believe it has lasted this long. But, with the IMF, ECB, JCB, Chinese central banking…..all joining with the FED’s policies of endless “easing” the printing press continues regardless there is no way the money supply can ever balance with the real wealth generated.
In 1995, the financial sector of US GDP was 16%. By 2007, it was at 63%. Financials create no jobs, build nothing of value. The only growth throughout the world has been debt, nothing else.