Greeks earning 42,000 Euros to be taxed at top rate under plan

[BlueStateSaint]

This is coming here . . .


Greeks earning 42,000 Euros to be taxed at top rate under plan

Posted: Dec 13, 2012 8:46 PM ESTUpdated: Dec 13, 2012 8:49 PM EST

By DEREK GATOPOULOS
 
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greeks earning more than €42,000 ($55,000) per year will now be taxed at a new top rate of 42 percent, under a major new tax reform bill submitted to the country's parliament late Thursday.
 
Under the new guidelines, the 42 percent top tax rate and earnings threshold replaces the previous level of 45 percent for incomes above €100,000 ($130,770). The new rate is part of a simplification of the country's tax rules. There are currently eight tax bands ranging from 18 percent to 45 percent. These will be replaced by three tax rates: 22 percent, 32 percent and 42 percent.
 
Greeks earning less than €25,000 ($32,700) a year are set to benefit from the new system in spite of the raise in the basic tax band as the government is proposing to raise the threshold on which income is taxed.
 
The new tax rates, part of the austerity measures demanded by the country's international rescue lenders, were submitted to parliament hours after the finance ministers from the 17 European Union countries that use the euro agreed in Brussels to restart rescue loan payments. Greece is in line to get €49.1 billion ($64 billion) between now and March, with €34.3 billion of that amount due in the coming days.
 
Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, presented his colleagues form the other 16 European Union details of his country's long-awaited tax overhaul before the bill was submitted.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20342042/greeks-earning-42000-euros-to-be-taxed-at-top-rate#ixzz2F2RhlgH6


This ain't gonna make a lot of people happy . . .

[DumbAss Tanker]

It'll only be a problem for the ones who actually pay it...a chronic problem in all the Mediterranean countries.

[tac]

But the successive hikes in taxes, required to meet deficit-cutting targets, have hammered the economy, pushing unemployment up to 26 percent, and with more than 20 percent of the population now officially living in poverty — earning less than €7,200 ($9,420) per year.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20342042/greeks-earning-42000-euros-to-be-taxed-at-top-rate#ixzz2F7qsneUF

Give the current administration time and this will be our fate.

[DumbAss Tanker]

There seem to be a lot of people running governments who never played Sim City Classic, but should have.

[cattlebaron]

There is, and has been for years, a strong open sympathy and interest for socialist leaders in Greece. Is it something culturally that is causing this? Does anyone know late Grecian history well enough to write about how its slid this bad into this situation? Their actions are downright self destructive and show no improvement.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Socialism is kind of the dark side of democratic government...once central government becomes powerful enough, which it inevitably does, and a critical mass of people become recipients of redistributed wealth to affect elections, it results in kind of an accelerating circle of doom...kind of like a stellar collapse into a black hole, and we're pretty close to our own little event horizon, if not already crossing it.  The Greeks clearly went over it some time ago; their current politico-economic organization is simply unsustainable over the long term, though it may be quite awhile dying back into some kind of autocracy.

[Gina]

I am so sick of supporting so many lazy citizens in this country.

[Eupher]

Story in the Wall Street Journal today about how Standard & Poors upgraded their rating of Greece from "selective default" to "B minus."

A strong and clear commitment from members of the euro zone to keep Greece in the common-currency bloc helped lead Standard & Poor's to raise its rating on Greece to B-minus from selective default Tuesday.

It is the highest rating S&P has given Greece since June 2011 as the country continues to face a deep recession and debt crisis.

Even with the country still facing challenges, S&P placed a stable outlook on the new B-minus rating. That buoys hope that the worst of Greece's problems could be in the past.

The outlook "balances our view of euro-zone member states' determination to support Greece's euro-zone membership and the Greek government's commitment to a fiscal and structural adjustment against the economic and political challenges of doing so," S&P said in a statement.

Greece was downgraded to selective default from triple-C Dec. 5 when the country commenced its second debt restructuring of the year. S&P was in selective default in late February when it underwent a first debt restructuring program as well. Between those two restructurings, Greece's debt rating was in the C-level, multiple notches below its new rating.

The selective default rating was only temporary and is a typical rating from S&P when a country goes through a debt restructuring.

Greece received a long-awaited €34.3 billion ($45.4 billion) round of aid Monday as part of the latest bailout program. The aid comes after Greece agreed to buy back some of its outstanding private-sector debt at deep discounts to face value to reduce its debt burden.

S&P noted that even after the debt repurchase, Greece's debt-to-gross domestic product ratio is more than 160%. Despite the onerous debt level—one of the highest ratios in the world—S&P said it was encouraging that euro-zone members would improve official bailout lending terms to the government as part of the latest deal.

The rating could be slashed in the future if there is a likelihood of another distressed debt exchange, S&P said. An upgrade could eventually be possible for Greece if it fully follows through on complying with bailout requirements and policy making helps contribute to a sustained economic recovery, the ratings firm said.

S&P's rating is higher than where competitors Fitch Ratings and Moody's MCO +1.57% Investors Service rate the country. Fitch has a triple-C rating and Moody's a single-C rating on Greece.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324677204578187462557868562.html

[DumbAss Tanker]

Story in the Wall Street Journal today about how Standard & Poors upgraded their rating of Greece from "selective default" to "B minus."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324677204578187462557868562.html

Administration minions threatened the rating services with searching witch-hunts after the last US downgrade, this is 60-70% ass coverage rather than sound assessment.

[Maxiest]

Problem is, just like here there will be no one left to pay it.  Good job idiots.

[Duke Nukum]

What was the original purpose of the European Union anyway?

Judging by the result it seems to have been a means to economically destroy Europe. But that cannot be what they intended, can it?

[DumbAss Tanker]

What was the original purpose of the European Union anyway?

Judging by the result it seems to have been a means to economically destroy Europe. But that cannot be what they intended, can it?

Different countries had different reasons, resulting in a bad marriage.  The Med countries wanted the shelter of an actual hard currency for their notoriously-ineptly-managed currencies and  economies, while both Germany and France (Who had the hard currencies) each thought they would be the dominant Central European player, something to which each has been aspiring since taking their modern forms.  The goals of France and Germany in this were really much more politically- and ethnically-based than economic; the French had somewhat less of a basis in reality for this belief than the Germans, since their dream was based more on pre-War history and culture than anything else, while the German one was based on current economic power, but neither one was all that sound...at best they would be 'First among equals' in a political assembly where they were heavily outnumbered.  Also, for the few strong economies, the elimination of intra-EC tariffs and tolls and other border controls was pretty appealing, though like NAFTA they sort of failed to account for the fact that also meant many of the jobs that made them strong would be flowing away to cheaper locations with the zone too.

[Eupher]

Administration minions threatened the rating services with searching witch-hunts after the last US downgrade, this is 60-70% ass coverage rather than sound assessment.

Well, witchhunts notwithstanding, according to this Wiki article (yeah, I know, it's Wiki), Moody's downgraded their rating of the U.S. to "negative" on June 2, 2011 (S&P's downgrade of the US from AAA to AA+ occurred on Aug. 5) and Fitch changed its rating to "negative" as late as Nov. 28, 2011.

Since these three CRA's are considered the "Big Three," I guess they weren't quite playing ball with Barry's minions and downgraded Bernanke anyway.

It would be interesting to see how far that rating will fall when/if the debt ceiling is raised yet again. As Boehner has the spine of an al dente angelhair pasta strand, we just may get to see that happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_credit-rating_downgrade#Downgrades_after_2011

[thundley4]

Well, witchhunts notwithstanding, according to this Wiki article (yeah, I know, it's Wiki), Moody's downgraded their rating of the U.S. to "negative" on June 2, 2011 (S&P's downgrade of the US from AAA to AA+ occurred on Aug. 5) and Fitch changed its rating to "negative" as late as Nov. 28, 2011.

Since these three CRA's are considered the "Big Three," I guess they weren't quite playing ball with Barry's minions and downgraded Bernanke anyway.

It would be interesting to see how far that rating will fall when/if the debt ceiling is raised yet again. As Boehner has the spine of an al dente angelhair pasta strand, we just may get to see that happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_credit-rating_downgrade#Downgrades_after_2011

And Obama wants complete control of the debt ceiling for two years.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Well, witchhunts notwithstanding, according to this Wiki article (yeah, I know, it's Wiki), Moody's downgraded their rating of the U.S. to "negative" on June 2, 2011 (S&P's downgrade of the US from AAA to AA+ occurred on Aug. 5) and Fitch changed its rating to "negative" as late as Nov. 28, 2011.

Since these three CRA's are considered the "Big Three," I guess they weren't quite playing ball with Barry's minions and downgraded Bernanke anyway.

It would be interesting to see how far that rating will fall when/if the debt ceiling is raised yet again. As Boehner has the spine of an al dente angelhair pasta strand, we just may get to see that happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_credit-rating_downgrade#Downgrades_after_2011

The saber-rattling about 'Looking into' Standard & Poors, in particular, was within the last month or two, I'm fairly sure...can't recall exactly since it was an incidental I heard on a business program that did not directly affect anything I was doing at the time, but it was pretty recent.  May have been around election time, but not much before.

[cattlebaron]

Different countries had different reasons, resulting in a bad marriage.  The Med countries wanted the shelter of an actual hard currency for their notoriously-ineptly-managed currencies and  economies, while both Germany and France (Who had the hard currencies) each thought they would be the dominant Central European player, something to which each has been aspiring since taking their modern forms.  The goals of France and Germany in this were really much more politically- and ethnically-based than economic; the French had somewhat less of a basis in reality for this belief than the Germans, since their dream was based more on pre-War history and culture than anything else, while the German one was based on current economic power, but neither one was all that sound...at best they would be 'First among equals' in a political assembly where they were heavily outnumbered.  Also, for the few strong economies, the elimination of intra-EC tariffs and tolls and other border controls was pretty appealing, though like NAFTA they sort of failed to account for the fact that also meant many of the jobs that made them strong would be flowing away to cheaper locations with the zone too.

Great thoughts. The bit at the end about jobs flowing away could have volumes written about it, especially when I think of the refugees looking for work in vegetable fields in northern Greece ten years ago...etc.

[Eupher]

The saber-rattling about 'Looking into' Standard & Poors, in particular, was within the last month or two, I'm fairly sure...can't recall exactly since it was an incidental I heard on a business program that did not directly affect anything I was doing at the time, but it was pretty recent.  May have been around election time, but not much before.

Interesting.

There's this, but it's fairly old:

http://alspoliticalview.blogspot.com/2011/08/obama-threatens-s-over-aa-rating.html

I wasn't able to find anything more recent.

Bottom line is, Barry and his thugs are definitely not shy about strong-arming CRAs because those CRAs are doing what they should be doing -- punishing poor policies with room-temperature credit ratings.