Why have taxes been rising? To pay off all that debt?
In Greece, Property Is Debt
11–20 of 302 posts
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#12The article mentions the word "tax" 14 times, but it never says what it actually is. How bad is it?
It has become bad because greece basically did not have a property tax before 2011. The tax rate is not much higher than what is usual internationally. Given the very low rental yelds however, owning property may have become a bad deal. (Also greece has a high homeownership rate)
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#13The system is fucked beyond repair. There is no 'Greek' system or 'English' system - it's all the same, it's all interconnected - so someone in Europe must live the consequences of political decisions in China or the United States or any other country, really. And that's to be expected, because the system was not 'engineered', but hacked together in time - sometimes in response to crises, sometimes influenced by insa…
>This is the rare case when refactoring just doesn't cut it, we need a complete rewrite of the whole thing.
Does anyone have access to the world government dev environment?
I mean the code may need re-writing but we could probably use the same infrastructure.
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#14Greek economy was a scam. There is really no way to help them now. They fooled the entire world to get the unearned prosperity of the 00s.
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#15The system is fucked beyond repair. There is no 'Greek' system or 'English' system - it's all the same, it's all interconnected - so someone in Europe must live the consequences of political decisions in China or the United States or any other country, really. And that's to be expected, because the system was not 'engineered', but hacked together in time - sometimes in response to crises, sometimes influenced by insa…
I don't understand this comment. What about this article makes you think the Greeks can't make decisions for themselves? Is their land unsuitable for farming, and manufacture, and services? Did someone setup an embargo against them? Furthermore, the idea of needing to overhaul things at a global level makes many assumptions. For example, that anyone has the authority and intelligence to tell the entire world how it s…
Decisions for themselves? Hah. It's not in the article, but Schäuble and the other EU finance ministers have set out to make an example out of Greece, or the apparatchiks just don't like the radical lefties that got into power. Paul Krugman has mused, before, EUcrats could tell government officials what to do, and when they follow them, even if the country fails and they get voted out, they'd get cushy EU jobs. But the current Greek government don't want cushy EU jobs, they want to save the population. That and other things (domino effect, if Greece gets forgiveness, the other countries would want it too) mean it is in the EUcrats' best interest to see Greece fail.
Meanwhile, Schäuble's policy of Austerity über Alles mean the Greek government has been forced to abandon policies that might've rebooted the economy, and be forced to cut spending in hopes that the "confidence fairy" shows up. Even the IMF has said this policy is stupid...
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#16The article mentions the word "tax" 14 times, but it never says what it actually is. How bad is it?
http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Greece/Taxes-and-C... It looks like property tax tops out at 2% annually of assessed value. This is similar to tax rates in Wisconsin, but if they play the same games in Greece that some local governments do, the properties are assessed well above anything you could sell the property for.
They probably do. My apartment was made in 1963, 63sqm (670sqft). "Zone price" (i.e. what the government considers the price of 1 sqm of development in a certain region) is 1100 euros, building age multiplier for that is 0.60 so we end with a 660 euro/sqm pric, for a total assessment of 41580 euros.
I'd be lucky if I got half of that If I actually tried to sell it at the moment.
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#17Apart from inheritance, the parents can also set up a form of "parental donation" of their property to their children, but continue to make full use of the property (live on the property or keep all the rent) as long as they are alive.
And the difference between "inheritance" and "parental donation", is that the latter was set up decades ago when it was cheap to do so.
What you are reading in this article is cases where they did not plan for the future.
In addition, the article does not provide information about the condition of the property. In many cases, the property would be an old house at a village that may not habitable or small olive groves that have little value.
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#18The system is fucked beyond repair. There is no 'Greek' system or 'English' system - it's all the same, it's all interconnected - so someone in Europe must live the consequences of political decisions in China or the United States or any other country, really. And that's to be expected, because the system was not 'engineered', but hacked together in time - sometimes in response to crises, sometimes influenced by insa…
[deleted]
Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#19Greek economy was a scam. There is really no way to help them now. They fooled the entire world to get the unearned prosperity of the 00s.
This is a superficial comment. How does downvoting work here?
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Re: In Greece, Property Is Debt
#20Why have taxes been rising? To pay off all that debt?
Austerity (deep cuts to government services) and tax rises were the conditions imposed on Greece as part of a series of financial bailouts from various national banks around the EU. The Greek people had riots over them, and a change of government in September 2015, before there was a consensus that there was absolutely no other option but to go along with the steps required in order to get the bailout money.