Taxes

It may seem off topic, but it’s not.

The new taxation imposed on some of the citizens of Greece (the Wild Traveler being one of them) directly affects the Wild Traveler’s ability to travel wildly: the extra 1050 euros freelancers and contractors have to pay, equals to a week’s travel in the Middle East or the Maghreb, or even Cuba (give or take a hundred), or a couple of long weekend trips in Barcelona, Berlin or Paris.

The Wild Traveler is not happy.

The new tax laws also provide for the bully-like settlement of peraiosis, an ingenious greek device, also applicable to freelancers and contractors only: for a fixed sum, the IRS promises not to audit one’s books – unless they do audit them, of course. In essence, the peraiosis system presupposes that all freelancers and contractors are defrauding the state, so it asks for a sum to exempt them from regular audits. Conveniently enough the system does not cover for special audits, so in essence it is a very expensive “might-get-out-of-jail” card.

The current peraiosis charge is – if the Wild Traveler remembers correctly – 2400 euros, which translates to a year’s worth of wild travels.

The Wild Traveler is not happy at all.

This recent tax surge has made the Wild Traveler wonder about the pros and cons of citizenship, of belonging to a state and submitting oneself to its sovereignty. A hasty Internet search though yielded no viable alternative, as, it turns out, stateless people face serious passport and therefore boarder crossing issues.

The Wild Traveler will keep looking for a way out. And a way in. And a way to protect his hard-earned cash from incompetent vultures whose only skill is to earn more votes than other incompetent vultures.