ATHENS, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The average Greek taxpayer needs to work a record of 203 days this year to cover the taxation burden and social insurance contributions, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
The Athens-based think tank Markos Dragoumis Center for Liberal Studies (KEFIM) estimated that the so-called "tax freedom day" for Greece in 2017 will come on July 23.
This will be the first day of the year in which the citizens of a country have enough income to pay their taxes. Following the latest austerity and reform measures, Greeks on average lose 55.64 percent of their income to the state in 2017.
Last year's tax freedom day for Greeks came 15 days earlier as they had to work 188 days and pay 51.6 percent of their annual income to taxes and social security payments, the front page of daily TA NEA (The News) noted.
Greece was ranking 6th to the bottom among the EU member states in 2016, while in 2017 is the third to the bottom before France and Belgium.
In 2015, the number of days was 179 and the average percentage 48.9 percent, while in 2009 before the start of the Greek debt crisis, it was 147 days and 40.8 percent, said the survey.
The primary surplus was achieved by tax increases and not through spending cuts, said KEFIM's analyst Miranda Xafa.
The survey was released as the latest figures given by the independent Authority for Public Revenues earlier this month showed that in recent years overdue debts to the Tax office and social insurance funds are accumulating.
According to the statistics, over the past three years, the average rate of accumulating debt is about one billion euros (1 euro = 1.1 U.S. dollars) per month. By May 2017, some 3.9 million taxpayers owed to the state nearly 94.7 billion euros in taxes.
The figure is expected to further rise by August, as the deadline to file the personal income tax declarations for 2016 ends this Friday and the first tax installment is due late July.
