Greek wage earners burdened by tax authorities

 
The Hellenic Finance Ministry figures from the processing of last year's tax returns relating to the income of 2011, reveal a huge fiscal drain on employees and pensioners despite cuts in their earnings, while freelancers declared lower incomes and paid reduced taxes.
 
According to Ethnos newspaper, 4,8 million employees and retirees saw their incomes shrink significantly while their tax burden went soaring.
 
Although their earnings were reduced by 18% on average, they were required to pay income tax increased by 52%, resulting in a dramatic decline of their net income. The average declared income of wage earners and pensioners amounted to 14,640 euros last year from 17,812 euros in 2011, while the average tax soared to 1,654 euros from 1,091 euros in 2011.
 
1.1 million employees and retirees reported annual income up to 6,000 euros, which is below the poverty line, and means that the gross monthly salary in 2011 was 429 euros, while 65,185 of them had income of up to 1,000 euros a year.
 
Meanwhile, 347,304 freelancers declared an average income of 19,880 euros from 32,313 in 2011 (-38.5%) and the average tax amounted to 3,606 euros from 4,378 euros (-17.6%). It is striking that six out of ten (207,729 professionals) reported an annual income of up to 6,000 euros, while just 2,443 showed an income above 100,000 and up to 1,500,000 euros.
 
As Ethnos mentions, the top of the employees pyramid had 7,011 taxpayers that declared an income from 98,000 to 150 million euros each.