Troika says “no” to new debt settlement

In his statements on national television, Stournaras clarified that «there aren’t any thoughts of a new debt setting, the installments in accordance with the existing regulations are enough,» thus putting an end to summer plans for payment of up to 100 installments of 100 euros each.

These thoughts stumbled upon the Troika’s refusal, demanding not a new settlement of debts, but for anyone interested to exhaust the opportunities offered by the existing ones.

This leaves only two ways for someone to ask for for a settlement of debt by the tax authorities:

The standard setting (Law 2648/1998) provides for a settlement in 48 installments, but without reducing the surcharges. Usually tax officers give a setting of up to 15 months, but taxpayers can request more installments that start at 36 and can be extended to 48.

Although this does not reduce the surcharges, the inclusion in regulation suspends any coercive measures for recovery and possible criminal prosecution of the taxpayer, provided for debts exceeding 5,000 euros.

The special setting (Law 3888/2010) that provides for a reduction of surcharges as well. Initially it contained 48 low- cost monthly installments, but for someone to be subject to it today, they need to pay off the first 26 monthly installments which have elapsed since its launch in 2010.

This means the payer will be entitled to 22 monthly installments for the next 2 years, but for the balance remaining after the repayment of the sum of 26 installments. It is obvious, however, that few would now have the opportunity and the money immediately to pay more than half of their total debt to take advantage of the low installments for the remainder of their debt.