The Greek government is trying to recover billions of euros lost to tax evasion as part of its austerity programme, but as the BBC's Malcolm Brabant finds, many Greeks see it as their right to keep as much black money as possible. A good friend of mine bent my ear with a vengeance on the day the Greek government cranked up its austerity programme another notch. "My husband is thinking of writing the word vlacha on his forehead in very big letters," she said. Vlacha means stupid. Her husband's name is Stelios and he is anything but a stupid man. Stelios is a leading cancer specialist whose dedication to saving lives is such that he rarely takes time off, or holidays. But he has come to the conclusion that he is stupid because he has been honest.Anyone who has ever been at the mercy of the American health system knows that even if you are critically ill, many hospitals will not let you near a doctor until they have swiped your credit card. There is an old adage here that Greece is a poor country full of rich people . In Greece, if you try to pay for private treatment with a credit card, even the most distinguished surgeon might raise his eyebrows and click his tongue, which means: "What part of no don't you understand?" Because the doctor wants cash. Stelios is one of the few doctors who will give you a receipt. He declares his income to the taxman and pays his proper dues to the state. As opposed to many of his colleagues who are pillars of Greece's thriving black economy.
Blackmail fears "We know surgeons who earn 700,000 euros a year," fumed Stelios's wife. "And they hardly pay any tax at all." "So why didn't Stelios do what everybody else did?" I asked. "Partly because of fear," she replied. "Fear of a visit from a tax inspector who would try to blackmail him by demanding 10,000 euros in an envelope in return for not going through his accounts with a fine toothcomb. And also because he wanted to do the right thing."
Πηγή http://news.bbc.co.uk
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