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Greece’s Financial Crime Unit will check the income sources of 1,700 Greeks who suddenly became super-rich in the crisis years of 2010-11. Among them are ex-ministers, MPs, political party leaders, football players, doctors, and lawyers. Greek tax authorities have a special Elenxis system, which allows them to compare income, and taxes paid as well as reveal shadow accounts. The Crime Units will also check the assets of 54,000 Greeks who have transferred some 22 billion Euros (878.4 billion Roubles. 28.5 billion USD. 17.8 billion UK Pounds) to foreign banks since 2009.
3 December 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_03/Greece-to-probe-the-rich/
Editor’s Note:
Orthodox people… let’s keep this short… Paffhausen, Potapov, Dreher, Mattingly, Reardon, Whiteford, et al just go into orgasm over the Republican defence of the Affluent Effluent. Reflect on that… it’s in direct opposition to Our Lord Christ. The Greeks are starting to chase down the affluent rapists of the economy of their country… we should do likewise, starting with Willard Romney and Darrell Issa… I wonder what the above-named individuals would think of that?
Any road, 22 billion Euros is only 2,000 Euros per Greek (80,000 Roubles. 2,600 USD. 1,600 UK Pounds), and it works out to only 40,750 Euros (1.63 million Roubles. 52,700 USD. 32,850 UK Pounds) per capita for the cohort under investigation… I think that the really big boys are swimming away scot-free, and that the Affluent Effluent controllers of the rightwing New Democracy government are trying to assuage popular anger by allowing it to pursue second-tier tax cheats. However, if SYRIZA wins the next election (and it shall), watch for the flights to London to be packed to the gills… they’ve all bought flats in Belgravia next to Berezovsky and Abramovich just for that eventuality, y’ know (they’re greedy and corrupt, but they’re not stupid)…
BMD
Government and SYRIZA Clash Over Church Tax Proposal
Tags: Church, church affairs, Church of Greece, church tax, church-state relations, church-state separation, churches, Coalition of the Radical Left, EU, European Union, Golden Dawn, Greece, Greek, ND, New Democracy, New Democracy Party, Orthodox, Orthodox Church, Orthodox Churches, Orthodoxy, Panhellenic Socialist Movement, PASOK, political commentary, politics, Politics of Greece, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Separation of church and state, Syriza
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On Monday, the relationship between the Greek state and the Church of Greece became the focus of a fresh clash between the government and the main opposition SYRIZA party after a leftist MP proposed the introduction of a new tax to pay clerics’ wages. SYRIZA deputy Tasos Kourakis said that the Church should start funding itself instead of relying on dwindling state coffers. Kourakis told a conference organised by the Theology Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki that another option would be to impose a church tax on all Greeks who declare themselves Orthodox Christians. He said that revenues from it could go toward church costs and clerics’ salaries.
The rightwing New Democracy shot down the idea, which likened the proposed tax to “Stalinist measures”. ND argued that such a levy would be unconstitutional, as it would discriminate between Greeks based on their religious beliefs. SYRIZA noted that Kourakis’s proposal was the MP’s “personal opinion”, but said that Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras had mooted a similar initiative in the fall of 2011 when the latter was head of the Foundation for Industrial and Economic Research (IOBE). Stournaras accused SYRIZA of distorting comments that he made during a TV interview, when he noted that other European citizens don’t pay clerics’ salaries through taxation without proposing however that Greece follow suit.
28 January 2013
Kathimerini
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/01/2013_480874
Editor’s Note:
What SYRIZA proposes is nothing more than the system in place in Germany, where citizens pay a “church tax” that goes to the church of their choice. If one isn’t religious, the money goes into a general charity fund. “Stalinist” is usually “right-speak” for “we don’t like this and we want to demonise the people making this proposal” (such as Potapov’s recent crackbrained initiative concerning “Stalingrad” in the ROCOR). In short, the SYRIZA proposal isn’t leftist at all; it’s merely fair. It simply places the burden of support of the Orthodox Church on Orthodox believers. That’s as it should be, kids… New Democracy is sinking into irrelevance along with PASOK… SYRIZA is Greece’s future, as this common-sense proposal indicates. You can have SYRIZA or you can have Golden Dawn (which is neo-Nazi, fascist, racist, and xenophobic… that’s no choice at all)… that’s the real-world choice on offer… there’s nothing else. It’s clear that SYRIZA’s the better choice.
BMD