With Greece scrapping to find every cent it can during a crushing economic crisis, officials from Visa card estimate the country is losing €43.2 billion ($56.6 billion) a year to an underground economy that doesn’t pay taxes and trades in smuggled goods and other ways of avoiding government scrutiny or payment. According to the credit card company, the loss to the underground economy has risen to 24% of GDP, far above the European average. The main cause, according to the company, is the use of cash, undeclared work and undeclared sales with Greek tax offices understaffed and without the technical means to go after people who’ve averted payments.
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