Financial News: Dialogue opens on tax reform

The government is open to discussing changes in every chapter of taxation (income tax, VAT, real estate tax, etc.), finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Monday, inaugurating a dialogue on reform of the taxation system.
Venizelos said that there will be no predispositions in the dialogue, but stressed that in all instances any changes made must have zero impact on tax revenues, in other words, the measures that will result in a loss of revenues to the state must be counterbalanced by other measures that will balance the losses.
He announced that the political parties and relevant agencies must submit their proposals to the ministry’s e-mail address by August 22, so that a preliminary draft that will serve as the starting point for the dialogue may be completed by September 15.
The government intends to table the taxation bill with all the changes in October, together with the draft 2012 budget, Venizelos added.
Representatives of the political parties and the social partners have been invited to take part in the dialogue.