So they voted.. and how they voted!
As of this morning Greece has a new government. The radical left wing party Striza gained one hundred and forty nine seats out of one hundred and fifty one which would have given them total control.
After less than an hour's talks this morning, they have formed a new government having joined with the populist rightwing Independent Greeks Party.
Interesting.. to say the least.. one thing that struck a cord with her was the phrase "we will tax luxury goods and the Greek Shipping magnates". And quite right too.. for there are FAR too many magnates of ALL nationalities and professions, and NO, she is NOT just talking about the Grecian ones in this post, who pay almost no tax.
Ok, they pay the VAT when they eat in a restaurant and when they purchase something of a small amount but on a big item, suddenly their passport appears like a rabbit out of the hat and they claim TAX FREEdom.
Throughout the world, they purchase properties through corporations, the property becomes a company, and the stock price is X, the stock is sold to another company and whoops.. someone else is living in the house and NO Stamp Duty tax has been paid. It is a 'clever' way that properties worth MILLIONS of £'s change ownership but in the UK alone it costs millions of £'s in lost revenue.
Back to Greece.. where, undoubtedly the Greek magnates, of all professions, and a lot of other people, have excercised the cleverness of their Financial Wizards to avoid paying any tax unless absolutely necessary.
She remembers talking to a Greek pilot years ago.. the following story always made her 'smile'.
The Greeks were sent a form to fill in, it was a Property Tax form. One question was 'Do you have a swimming pool in your garden?'
Out of thousands and thousands of questionaires that were returned, there were, she seems to remember, only about fifteen who ticked this question saying that they did have a swimming pool.
The authorities smelt a very BIG rat as they had investigated one swimming pool company for tax fraud, why had they bought so much cement and so many tiles, whose details had already been obtained from THOSE companies, if they were doing so little business and paying so little tax?
The pool company sang like that old proverbial canary.. and so up and into the blueblue Grecian sky the pilot took his plane with a camera.. which, of course, photographed hundreds and hundreds of swimming pools..
She and thousands of other people are 'Rooting' for this new Government. In the meantime but I quess that would be 'A Bridge Too Far'.. how about Germany paying Greece back.. this refers to WW2 and is worthy of a post all to itself.
But she is supposed to be digging out a recipe for Spelt Flour Soda bread with Seeds and Molasses.
FlapFlap.. the bread is for me as Lidl's Sunflower Bread by Rivercote has disappeared.. FlapFlap.
GeeGee Parrot.
January 26th, 2015.
As of this morning Greece has a new government. The radical left wing party Striza gained one hundred and forty nine seats out of one hundred and fifty one which would have given them total control.
After less than an hour's talks this morning, they have formed a new government having joined with the populist rightwing Independent Greeks Party.
Interesting.. to say the least.. one thing that struck a cord with her was the phrase "we will tax luxury goods and the Greek Shipping magnates". And quite right too.. for there are FAR too many magnates of ALL nationalities and professions, and NO, she is NOT just talking about the Grecian ones in this post, who pay almost no tax.
Ok, they pay the VAT when they eat in a restaurant and when they purchase something of a small amount but on a big item, suddenly their passport appears like a rabbit out of the hat and they claim TAX FREEdom.
Throughout the world, they purchase properties through corporations, the property becomes a company, and the stock price is X, the stock is sold to another company and whoops.. someone else is living in the house and NO Stamp Duty tax has been paid. It is a 'clever' way that properties worth MILLIONS of £'s change ownership but in the UK alone it costs millions of £'s in lost revenue.
Back to Greece.. where, undoubtedly the Greek magnates, of all professions, and a lot of other people, have excercised the cleverness of their Financial Wizards to avoid paying any tax unless absolutely necessary.
She remembers talking to a Greek pilot years ago.. the following story always made her 'smile'.
The Greeks were sent a form to fill in, it was a Property Tax form. One question was 'Do you have a swimming pool in your garden?'
Out of thousands and thousands of questionaires that were returned, there were, she seems to remember, only about fifteen who ticked this question saying that they did have a swimming pool.
The authorities smelt a very BIG rat as they had investigated one swimming pool company for tax fraud, why had they bought so much cement and so many tiles, whose details had already been obtained from THOSE companies, if they were doing so little business and paying so little tax?
The pool company sang like that old proverbial canary.. and so up and into the blueblue Grecian sky the pilot took his plane with a camera.. which, of course, photographed hundreds and hundreds of swimming pools..
She and thousands of other people are 'Rooting' for this new Government. In the meantime but I quess that would be 'A Bridge Too Far'.. how about Germany paying Greece back.. this refers to WW2 and is worthy of a post all to itself.
But she is supposed to be digging out a recipe for Spelt Flour Soda bread with Seeds and Molasses.
FlapFlap.. the bread is for me as Lidl's Sunflower Bread by Rivercote has disappeared.. FlapFlap.
GeeGee Parrot.
January 26th, 2015.
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