German "Help"

Germans often get to an emotional point on issues, and their general niceness comes out....sometimes shocking you to the extent of how they'd really like to help you.

This week, around 160 German finance folks got together, and acknowledge that they'd like to "help" Greece.  They have some fair knowledge of the overall situation in Greece, and things are screwed up.  They also are very aware of how Greeks (on average) avoid approximately 20 billion Euro (roughly $26 billion dollars) in taxes.  Greek hotels, restaurants, taxi companies, shipping companies, and virtually every type of business in the country....work at some angle to avoid paying their fair share.

For a small country of eleven million residents....20 billion Euro adds up.  If you compared that against the US....it'd amount to 600 billion dollars that misses the government revenue pot.

What the 160 German finance folks intend to do....is place themselves at the right levels of taxation....pull out the books....start visiting businesses and demand access....on the spot....of their records for the week, month, or year.  The Greek will get furious and refuse to deal with them.  The cops will come but refuse to do anything because it's not a real crime....in their eyes.  So months later, a Greek judge would order the books handed over, and by then.....they've been doctored enough to look puzzling but acceptable.

The German experts are probably right.  German companies know the rules pretty well.  If you avoid certain taxes, and the Finanzamt folks show up asking for the books.....you might as well hand them over.  There'll always be a Customs cop or two involved in this process, and they will have the authority to grab your books on the spot.

The Greeks have been playing this tax avoidance game for years, and gotten away with it.

The comical side of this is the friendly nature of the German finance guys.....the attitude of we want to help you....just let us look at your books.  I'm guessing Greeks will just push this another notch up on the furious scale about their German friends.  The finance guys will grin mostly about this offering....knowing they are fairly safe in being refused.