Quote: chipolata @ May 6 2010, 8:16 PM BSTGlad to see you base your opinions on single posts on messagge boards!
I've read the same thing in numerous media reports, but this was the first report by someone I "know." It's nice to hear what common people have to say about issues in their homeland instead of having to rely on the media's and government's talking points. For instance, I like hearing what you all on the BCG have to say about life in Britain as opposed to only getting my UK news from the BBC and Reuters.
For what it's worth, the post was made on a VERY liberal, left-leaning website.
An interesting article about tax cheating in Greece:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/36897497
In the wealthy, northern suburbs of this city, where summer temperatures often hit the high 90s, just 324 residents checked the box on their tax returns admitting that they owned pools.
So tax investigators studied satellite photos of the area - a sprawling collection of expensive villas tucked behind tall gates - and came back with a decidedly different number: 16,974 pools.
That kind of wholesale lying about assets, and other eye-popping cases that are surfacing in the news media here, points to the staggering breadth of tax dodging that has long been a way of life here.
Such evasion has played a significant role in Greece's debt crisis, and as the country struggles to get its financial house in order, it is going after tax cheats as never before.
Various studies, including one by the Federation of Greek Industries last year, have estimated that the government may be losing as much as $30 billion a year to tax evasion - a figure that would have gone a long way to solving its debt problems.
