No solidarity levy on retroactive payments

The government is providing 400,000 special wage grid workers and pensioners who have received retroactive payments for cuts made as part of austerity measures with another pre-election handout, by exempting the sums they were awarded last year from the solidarity levy.

Sources close to Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou say that in a bill on regulations concerning the usage of seaside areas that the ministry plans to table in Parliament next week, there will also be a clause providing for the nonpayment of the solidarity levy by the above category of civil servants and pensioners.

That is despite the fact that the tax declaration submission process has been under way since earlier this week.

Just before the end of last year the government passed a regulation through Parliament providing for the taxing of the retroactive payments to special wage grid workers and pensioners at a 20 percent rate, but this only concerned income tax.

This latest move means that the overdue handouts will be fully excluded from the annual income amount used for the calculation of each taxpayer’s solidarity levy obligations.

Source: ekathimerini.com