This photo posted by Lefkada resident Jan Grieveson
Jan posted a simple economic comparison between a UK sole trader and Greek self-employed business person and came up with the reason why so many self-employed in Greece trade/work illegally:
At the end of the day, there's not much left, and that's just the economics...
Let's not get started on the bureaucratic labyrinth for setting up a small business which in some other countries may take a couple of hours!
Here is what Jan said:
I have stated my case many times as to how difficult it is to be a self employed person in Greece, so I put this table together to show the different tax systems, this is for UK v Greece but the French and Germans have similar schemes to encourage self employment and self reliance, you can see why the Greeks have to trade illegally...
There's nothing left!!!
Simple,
whilst in the UK, tax incentives encourage self employment and self
reliance, in Greece, where self-employment is very popular, punitive
taxes do the opposite, they cripple the trader... and deprive the economy of valuable taxes, because in the end, the self-employed/small trader will work illegally.
This needs to change if the economy is to expand and develop.
In an austerity-ridden Greece with continually rising unemployment, small business owners and traders should be encouraged to set up shop, not discouraged.
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