Greece gets tough on tax dodgers who bully tax inspectors

Greek shop owners resisting on-site tax checks have been dealt penalties including a one-month shutdown, authorities said on Thursday after international lenders piled pressure on Athens to collect revenues.

In one case, shop-owners who had failed to issue sales receipts bullied away tax inspectors conducting checks at a local festival on the island of Crete, the General Secretariat of Revenues said in a statement.

The sanctions are the latest sign of Athens tackling its notoriously underperforming tax system, a major irritant for the International Monetary Fund and European Union which are funding its 240 billion euro ($321 billion) bailout.

The General Secretariat of Revenues was established earlier this year as an autonomous part of the finance ministry. It is intended to bypass the political interference and patronage that hampers the established tax system.

"Shop operations can be suspended for one month when there are serious violations and when tax checks are obstructed by threats and violence," the Secretariat said, adding that it had ordered the shutdown of 12 firms for such non-compliance and that 14 more faced similar action in the coming days.

With millions of visitors crowding the country's beaches in the holiday month of August, tax inspectors have focused on popular resorts where tax evasion is traditionally rampant.

In August last year, restaurant owners on the island of Hydra chased tax inspectors through the streets and had to be suppressed by riot police shipped in from far-away Athens.