Finance ministry drafts legislation to promote use of plastic money
Greek Finance ministry is drafting a new legislation -soon to be submitted to Parliament- linking tax-free income with spending using credit cards and interconnecting cash machines with the General Secretariat of Information Systems.
![Finance ministry drafts legislation to promote use of plastic money](https://img.bbmd.gr/img/1260/max/82/2016/06/17/english5.jpg?t=nPg5hq_oydpULe6bWTQvpw)
The new legislation, drafted by the team of Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis, envisages that each taxpayer must spend using credit/debit cards up to 10-30 pct of its income in order to enjoy a tax discount.
More analytically, for annual income up to 10,000 euros a 10 pct spending using plastic money should be required, for income up to 20,000 euros a 15 pct, for income up to 40,000 euros a 20 pct and for higher incomes a 30 pct. The draft bill could also envisage offering additional incentives to promote e-payments, such as lotteries with state property assets as prize, cash returns, etc.
The draft legislation will also envisage that professionals and enterprises must offer e-payment options to consumers (a gradual transition will be envisaged giving priority to sectors of high tax evasion risk). Also, creating a price observatory for charges imposed by banks on the use of plastic money and an obligatory identification of citizens using e-payment means to avoid phenomena of legalizing money from criminal activities.