[BITList] Tax evasion is a national pastime afflicting southern Europe

[x50type at cox.net]

Wherever the olive tree grows, you won't find much tax being collected.
southern Europe is dragging the euro down, down, down,...........................................what now?
time to dump the technocrats in bruxelles and the european parliament charade?
ct
Tax evasion is a national pastime afflicting southern Europe
By Tim Lister, CNN
November 3, 2011 -- Updated 1520 GMT (2320 HKT)

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi mused several years ago that high tax rates in Italy made evasion a "natural right."
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  a.. "Shadow economies" are defined as areas that fall beyond the reach of the taxman 
  b.. They include self-employed and family businesses, which tend to deal in cash and pay little tax 
  c.. For Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, they represent sizable portions of the GDP
(CNN) -- "Wherever the olive tree grows, you won't find much tax being collected," the mayor of a small town in southern Spain told me a few years ago. He shrugged; such was life.

He probably had no idea that some high-powered academics were about to come up with the same conclusion. When they analyzed Europe's "shadow economies" -- defined as areas that fall beyond the reach of the taxman -- those of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal were much larger (relatively) than those in northern Europe.

That is partly because of the higher number of self-employed and family businesses, which tend to deal in cash and pay little tax. But to many economic commentators, tax evasion is also a national pastime in much of southern Europe, and a significant factor in the region's burgeoning financial crisis.

According to a 2007 paper by Austrian economist Friedrich Schneider, the shadow economy in Italy accounted for 22.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), that of Spain 19.3%; Portugal 19.2% and Greece a staggering 25.1%. By comparison, the U.S. shadow economy was 7.2% of GDP. A recent European Union report came up with similar figures.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20111111/8a1c138e/attachment.shtml