Cyprus-Forum.com

[Nikitas]

That old joke about heaven and hell where certain functions are assigned to certain nationalities. In hell things are organized by Greeks.

beyond the stereotype, it is evident that something here combats simplicity and effectiveness. The latest example, withdrawals from accounts using cards. After the order is issued and there is uproar from those that do not have cash cards, ie the majority of pensioners, they come out with a hurried order, 120 Euro per week for the non card holders, effectively limiting their pensions to 480 per month. But the card holder can withdraw 50 per day every day. There was no intent to be unfair, it was sheer thoughtlessness.

What is needed, and this is with no sarcasm or irony, is to hand over the administration to a foreign specialist firm. It would be the most patriotic thing Greek politicians could do. It would help productivity no end, bring in know how so the local staff can experience true competence, let the people get on with important things.

There are people here who propose simple and effective solutions, but they are not connected to big money or the unions and they cannot get elected.

[Get Real!]

"Turkey ready to help Greece out of economic crisis"



But who is going to help Turkey out of theirs?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/turkey/external-debt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... ernal_debt

[GreekIslandGirl]

Synafia is not about cooking the books. It is about you being a proper businessman and then being slapped with a synafia and seeing your blood pressure shooting up because you are presumed to have cooked the books when you did not.

Absolutely can guarantee that this is the approach favoured by HMRC in the UK. Happened to us three times over a period of 10 years. The most recent accusation via a polemic and challenging formal letter was one I happened to mention at a dinner party just yesterday evening and was staggered to hear the same thing had happened to our host.

By doing this, HMRC (and presumably Greek authorities) catch out many people apparently because when already presumed to be guilty, and supposedly given some 'grace' to come clean, many do reveal 'mistakes' and the truly innocent had better have good evidence (as did we - but our friend ended up with a much bigger investigation lasting some years out of which HMRC then presented him with a bill of underpaid taxes of £30).

Have been dealing with many life matters all my life and I cannot fault the Greek authorities. For example, I send cash via a standard letter to the water authorities in Greece twice a a year and never once have I had a problem.

British people are too quickly forgiven for making "an honest mistake" whereas Greeks are toasted no matter!

[boomerang]

In infront of the tax man, we are all guilty before proven innocent...this is standard in all countries coz damn tax laws are so complex and who remembers what happens in the first quarter of every financial year...so as a company you are bound to screw up on something....

can you imagine in greece where for most companies total tax avoidance goes on undebated.....of course they are specially gonna at you from the "you're a person of interest" angle.....

[Paphitis]

Yeh I agree that the tax man in Australia is quite similar to that of Greece. With the spotlight on Greece right now, they have to be seen to be clamping down.

But Greece sure as hell has some nonsensical and stupid peculiarities which need to be cleaned up because it is a very difficult country to be doing business in. Imagine all the foreign capital which abandons the country because of this.

Greece is a very bueatiful country, with the best free spirited and liberated people, so I believe Greece could boom and prosper if the Government reforms the country to make it easier.

[Nikitas]

"I cannot fault the Greek authorities. "

You did not read, or perhaps I was not clear. You get two choices:

a) pay the arbitrary tax on TOP of the taxes you already paid.

b) refuse and be audited with the warning that no matter what, the result of the audit will result in a tax bill equal or bigger than the synafia formula. Pre determined audit results are unique, but this is Greece after all.

There is NO chance of "coming clean".

My last synafia was fun. My business had been bought out and I was a free lance with no expenses, so all my pay was posted as profit and tax overpaid in fact. It was so heart warming to watch the buraucrats stumped by that. We trudged into the tax chief's office with the controller complaining that I had posted no expenses.

"So he makes all profit, why is that a stick (pallouki) up your arse?" roared the chief who had it with his staff that day. Rude that he referred to me in the third person as if I was not there, but still fun.

[Nikitas]

Just remembered a scene at a bank. Inorder to cash a check made out to my registered trade mark and not me personally I was asked for a power of attorney. I explained that it made no sense to be both the creator and assignee of a POA. I explained to the bank person that as a qualified lawyer I knew the request was not legally sound and furnished the court decision granting me the trade mark (yes, you appear in court to get a trade mark so lawyers can charge an apperance fee, Greek system, so shut up and take it).

The conversation degraded in politenes, and upped in volume but still at the level of "anthrope mou" . The bank''s legal adviser happened to have been at the branch, in a mezzaine office and heard the gist.

The mezannine window opened, the legal dude stuck his head out and brought the exchange to its proper level:

"re malaka, the man is right, he cannot sign a document empowering himself, pay him!"

[GreekIslandGirl]

Sorry, Nikitas. You have entirely misrepresented the people of Greece!

[GreekIslandGirl]

The historic referendum result in full:

Voters were asked: 'whether to accept the outline of the agreement submitted by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund at the Eurogroup of 25/06/15'. (That is, do you accept the proposals of Greece's creditors, which the government has rejected?)

National results
With 100% of votes reported
Yes / Accepted 38.69%
Votes 2,245,537
No / Not accepted 61.31%
Votes 3,558,450
Turnout 62.5

http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int ... referendum

From Tsipras' address to the Nation:

Today, Greece has proved that democracy cannot be blackmailed; Greeks have made a brave choice, and one which will change the debate in Europe.

I understand that voters have not given me a mandate against Europe, but a mandate for a sustainable solution.

There are no easy solutions -- but a fair solution can be found, if both sides want it.

Tougher times ahead. Good luck brave Greeks.

Europe has taken another step closer to Democracy!

[Nikitas]

Misrepresented the Greek people! Wow!

I live here and suffer the inanities of the system along with the rest of the 11 milion who live here. Each of us has stories of time and money wasted in dealings with this bullshit system. The word system used to describe it is an insult to the language. There is no system, it is a mish mash of impositions conceived to benefit specific groups who had the clout to suck the energy of the rest.

How else would you describe the "protest" by port workers demanding that foreign cruise ships should employ a specific number of their members before entering local ports. The overall benefit to the general economy was irrelevant to these clowns, they only cared for their members' pay and we are talking about a dozen people in each case and blocked foreign cruise ships. It took violent protests by residents in port towns to lift this rule.