Reproduced from ""The Daily Frappe""
It's the equivalent of shutting down the best Hamptons hangouts of the rich and famous and then following them to their beachfront homes to seize the places for unpaid real estate taxes. That's what Greece's tax agents are doing this weekend in a desperate crackdown on its most notorious tax cheats living in posh holiday enclaves dotting Greece's Mediterranean coast. Greece earlier provoked widespread revolt and weeks of riots, fire bombings and wildcat strikes to protest belt-tightening and pay cuts of civil servants made to tame Greece's bloated budget and forestall default. Now, authorities are going after the rich. Taxmen first padlocked 10 of the top nightclubs and entertainment centers, starting in Athens and spreading to hip city Thessaloniki, for not collecting taxes from their rich party crowds. Agents then went knocking on the doors of 990 well-to-do individuals identified by the Ministry of Finance as tax cheats who owe more than $8.5 million in back real estate taxes on their vacation homes and seaside hideaways, on which they failed to report their values totaling $721 million, the ministry said. "Unless they pay their debts to the Greek state by July 20, the assets will be seized," the ministry said in a statement to The Post. In recent weeks, such storm-trooper methods have shaken out $2.33 billion from businesses that failed to report sales taxes -- double the amount collected for the entire prior year, the ministry said. The darkened nightclubs will be padlocked for the indefinite future. The ministry intends to auction seized homes for quick proceeds. Some real estate experts think a giant fire sale could be developing in the Greek isles.
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