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Posted on 03/21/2010 5:39:16 PM PDT by dynachrome
GREECE is cracking down on major cash transactions and will impose a high levy on the influential Orthodox church in a scramble to boost tax revenue in the face of a debt crisis. A new draft bill to be tabled in parliament next week imposes a 20 per cent tax on the Orthodox church's real estate income, reportedly worth over 10 million euros ($14.8 million) a year.
It also outlaws all business transactions of more than 1500 euros ($2220) conducted in cash, prescribing instead the use of credit cards and urging consumers to collect receipts in an effort to stamp out tax evasion that costs the state an estimated 10 billion euros ($14.8 billion) a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
The number of 1499 euro transactions will go through the roof.
and urging consumers to collect receipts in an effort to stamp out tax evasion
Yeah, I'm going to insist on a receipt so I can pay the full list price rather than the under the table price.
That could be....Dangerous.
Agree. When they’ve sucked every last dime out of us - then it’s the Churches. Watch your IRA.
This will happen here within 3 years if small-government conservatives do not take back Congress in November.
In a sense it began last year when Obama reduced the amount high income individuals could deduct for charitable contributions. Liberals give neither time nor money (liberals see charity as a failure of government to provide for the poor and believe taxation is the appropriate means to care for the poor).
Large purchases will require several distinct transactions.
I agree. I Think we’re at the “tipping point” (read Malcom Gladwell’s awesome book of the same title). It’s gonna get hairy and scary.
And it was a double win for the bastards. It increased tax revenues for the them, while at the same time helping to foster a greater need for government assistance by shrinking private charity assistance.
And then they come for The Church. Henry 8 did it as did the princelings in Germany and the French revolution. Let’s not let the Greek govt do this in Hellene
Just a matter of time.
There is a tiny (well, not so tiny) detail missing: The Greek state pays salaries for over 10,000 church officials and priests year after year, they are government employees . If the Church wants independence they should not ask the state to pay for their expenses. At a time when they are facing bankruptcy, asking the Church to pay taxes on their profit isn’t too much to ask.
That does make a difference. They are a state church and can’t whine.
There is a tiny (well, not so tiny) detail missing: The Greek state pays salaries for over 10,000 church officials and priests year after year, they are government employees . If the Church wants independence they should not ask the state to pay for their expenses. At a time when they are facing bankruptcy, asking the Church to pay taxes on their profit isn’t too much to ask.
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Point well made and taken. I agree.
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