ATHENS -- The central Athens neighborhood of Kolonaki is the native habitat of Greece's moneyed elite. The streets here are lined with some of the world's most expensive brands -- Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari -- and pleasant cafes steaming up $6 coffees.
But these days, the inhabitants of this exclusive enclave are nervous. Under pressure from both international bond markets and its eurozone partners to hack its budget deficit down to size, the Greek government has its eye out for tax evaders. There has long been a disconnect between the wealth on display in Greece and what's officially reported to the government -- according to official statistics, fewer than 3,000 Greeks, in a country of 11 million, declared earnings of more than $250,000 a year in 2008 -- but the taxman is now starting to zero in on signs of conspicuous spending like undeclared swimming pools and luxury cars.
COMMENTS (5)
More...
In May, the Greek Finance Ministry released a list of 57 doctors accused of squirreling away millions without paying taxes and is preparing a second list of celebrities, lawyers, and nightclub owners. It also says it will auction the properties of people who owe large sums to the state.
But Greeks are waiting to see whether the moves are more than PR. They want to see people -- especially the country's Prada-clad, BMW-driving elite -- held to account. In recent weeks, during marches and riots against a raft of painful government austerity measures, the chant of "Thieves! Thieves!" has come to encapsulate popular anger.
The rot in Greece's ruling class runs deep, and the governing PASOK party has yet to prove it is committed to sweeping out its own rubbish. One positive sign is the May 17 resignation on of the country's deputy culture and tourism minister, Angela Gerekou, after a local newspaper revealed that her husband, a famous singer, owed nearly $7 million to the state. A former Greek transport minister, Anastasios Mantelis, is also facing criminal charges over allegations that he accepted bribes from the German electronics company Siemens in return for helping secure a government contract.
Greeks know their system is bankrupt, morally as well as financially: Corruption and rampant tax evasion have corroded the core of the state, a reality people experience daily in their collapsing services. The country is reaping the bitter harvest of decades of societywide irresponsibility. Ordinary people blame their leaders, but the reality is everyone is complicit. At the top, the abuses are only more flagrant.
Take a shop owner not far from my house, whom I'll call Costas. I asked him recently if he could show me how his cash register worked -- shopkeepers are required to issue official receipts and print out daily summaries so that sales tax can be collected -- and offered to buy some batteries so he wouldn't have to pay taxes on something he didn't sell. I shouldn't worry, he assured me. He hadn't issued a legal receipt all day.
When I asked Costas how he could condemn Greek political leaders when he was doing the same thing -- albeit on a smaller scale -- he said powerful Greeks evaded taxes because they could; ordinary Greeks did it to keep up with the others. "The elites set the example," he said.
SUBJECTS:
(5)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE