Greek Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said no one is talking about abolishing the country's presumptive taxation system for the self-employed, even as he signalled changes to how it works.
Speaking to broadcaster SKAI, Hatzidakis discussed the cost of living at length, calling it the country's number one problem. He said new price cuts would come in September and pointed to what he called interesting developments on electricity prices.
How the presumptive tax works
Addressing the presumptive income system applied to freelance professionals, Hatzidakis explained the reasoning behind the measure and said new data emerging from the digitisation of transactions would now be factored in.
He said the system was adopted on the basis that the average freelance professional should pay at least as much tax as a salaried worker earning the minimum wage.
According to Hatzidakis, there are currently 714,000 self-employed professionals in Greece. Of these, 324,000 are already unaffected by the presumptive threshold because they declare income above it.
For the remaining 387,000, who fall within the threshold, Hatzidakis said they had declared an average of 302 euros a month last year.
He said all of this would be taken into account, as he had said since the system was first adopted, adding that it was not meant to stay in place forever.
No scrapping the system
Hatzidakis pushed back on speculation that the presumptive tax would be abolished altogether. He said what happens next would become clear once the prime minister speaks, and that the government was discussing a system that would take into account, for compliant taxpayers, the technological progress that has been made. He said that was as much as he could say for now.
What to expect from the Thessaloniki International Fair
Turning to the prime minister's upcoming announcements at the Thessaloniki International Fair, Hatzidakis said a package of measures would be unveiled that would be smaller than the proposals put forward by the opposition.
He said the package would certainly be smaller than the one proposed by PASOK and by Alexis Tsipras's party, and told viewers not to worry, saying people should be confident and reassured on that point. He said people in the opposition were incurable and had learned nothing from the past.
Growth and tax evasion as policy pillars
Hatzidakis said government policy rests on two main pillars: growing the economy through a pro-investment approach, and clamping down on tax evasion. He said this is where the finance ministry finds the money for the social dividend, which he said would be distributed again.
He said the prime minister's address at the fair would carry a broader programmatic character, and would not simply be a package of measures for the 2027 budget.
