Heracles the Tax Cheat

Using data from Greece’s ten largest banks, economists Nikolaos Artavanis, Adair Morse and Margarita Tsoutsoura recently estmated the extent and cost of Greek tax evasion.

The banks provided loan and credit-card application data, which gave the economists access to self-reported incomes, as well as bank estimates of true incomes, which are likely to be more accurate.

The economists’ estimated that in 2009 at least €28 billion in income went unreported. Taxed at 40%, that equates to €11.2 billion, nearly a third of Greece’s budget deficit.

Why hasn’t Greece done more to stop tax evasion? Well, the economists were also able to identify the top tax-evading occupations, doctors and engineers, both of whom are heavily represented in Parliament.