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Reform Support
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© EU

Supporting reforms to ensure efficient and effective revenue administration and public financial management.

Funding Programme
Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP)
Year
2016

Modernising tax audits in Greece

for the national Revenue Authority

The Commission supported national authorities in their efforts to modernise the process of selecting cases for tax audits by using data analysis. The support also helped the authorities identify tax avoidance practices and reap the benefits of digitalisation.

Context

The Greek authorities sought to change the tax audit practices by making it easier for the tax authority to identify and select high-risk audit cases, and to investigate potential tax avoidance. In the past, previous attempts to reform tax audit practices had failed, which had negative impact on revenue collection in the country.

Support delivered

The support provided by the European Commission and experts from the private sector was delivered over 3 months through short-term expert missions and long-term presence of experts on the ground.

The support measures consisted of:

  • reviewing current methods and identifying tax avoidance cases;
  • optimising resources by demonstrating ways in which IT tools can be used efficiently to target cases of potential tax avoidance; and
  • training auditors and analysts to perform data analysis.

Results achieved

Support from the Commission delivered the following results:

  • a new approach to identify and select highrisk audit cases; and
  • new country-specific risk criteria to detect tax-avoidance strategies.

And had the following impact:

  • new way of tackling tax avoidance;
  • increased awareness of tax avoidance practices; and
  • development of new IT skills.