Greece’s new Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has said that Greece is considering an “extraordinary tax” on wealthy individuals to expand on the new left-wing Government’s revenue streams.
The comments came during an interview with Greek television station SKAI TV on February 28. He said that the main objective would be to tax people “who have money, but have never paid.” This levy would apply above a specific income threshold, he indicated, but he did not provide additional details on the proposal. To support low income taxpayers, the Government will seek to phase back in the EUR12,000 (USD13,350) exempt threshold for the special solidarity contribution – a progressive, “crisis” levy introduced in 2011, which is levied at a rate of 1-4 percent, in addition to income tax.
He also briefly discussed the Government’s take on value-added tax (VAT) policy. He said that, as part of talks with the European Commission, the Government will be required to review certain concessionary rates to levy the headline rate on a broader range of goods and services, bringing Greece’s VAT rules closer into line with the VAT systems in other European Union member states. With reference to the Greek border regions, he said the Government is opposed to increasing VAT on medicine, food, and books.
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