The Independent Authority for Public Revenue, known by its Greek acronym AADE, demands revenue from its inspectors equal to five times the cost of the inspections. AADE Governor George Pitsilis points out that while the collection of fines for violations of the tax law has improved, only a small percentage of the fines assessed are still collected.

Pitsilis wants the revenue from the inspections to cover both the salaries of the employees and the costs of their inspections, including transportation and accommodation.

This year, according to the agency, a total of 170,385 inspections will be carried out, most of them on the spot. The targets set for each tax inspector must be achieved 100%. The AADE inspectors must ensure that total tax revenues reach 65 billion euros this year.

AADE’s total revenues, which should increase every year, must not only match but exceed nominal GDP growth, says Pitsilis.

The minimum objective of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue is to ensure the payment of €2.8 billion of the €115 billion in old tax debts and €2.3 billion of the €3.433 billion in unpaid taxes accumulated by 4,253,031 taxpayers in the first five months of the year.