By Trying to find innovative ways to fight tax evasion, Greece’s General
Secretariat for Information Systems has completed an application that
will allow the state’s monitoring and collection mechanism to access the
country’s banking system via an online connection and let the
government have access to depositor bank accounts.
The application, which will let the Finance Ministry troll through the accounts of all depositors suspected of tax evasion means online inspectors can scour through records of deposits, loans, credit card use and other data without permission from the account holder.
Until now, the law did not allow even investigators to check bank records, but Greece is under intense pressure from international lenders putting up $325 billion in two bailouts to find tax cheats and up tax revenues.
The system is ready and some virtual checks on accounts have already been conducted successfully, also helping with the training of the employees who will handle and store all bank data in the ministry’s server, the newspaper Kathimerini reported.
The bill that will allow monitoring mechanisms, police and anti-money-laundering authorities to use the data will be tabled in Parliament next month and the System of Bank Account Registers will be in full operation as of September.
The aim is to reduce the time needed to investigate significant cases with a direct benefit for the state budget and public coffers, officials said. Those using the system will be able to search through accounts and loan transactions simply using the tax registration number of the person being investigated. Source
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