2010-2012: Stabilization

 

Facing imminent economic collapse, Greece requested financial assistance from what became known as the Troika—the IMF, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank. Early tax administration interventions focused on stabilizing revenue flows and laying the groundwork for deeper reforms. These included an anti-tax-evasion plan, targeted programs to improve revenue collection from large taxpayers and wealthy individuals, and a medium‑term reform roadmap.

One early success was the digitalization of value‑added tax (VAT) filing. By 2014, 96 percent of registered taxpayers were filing VAT returns on time, up from 65 percent in 2010. Other initiatives—especially efforts to strengthen collection from large corporations, wealthy individuals, and tax debtors—proved harder to sustain, revealing the limits of reforms that did not sufficiently address governance and political interference.

2013-2017: Building durable institutions

The second phase of Greece’s reforms underscored a critical lesson: tax administration reforms cannot perform effectively without autonomy, clear accountability, and strong leadership.

Beginning in August 2012, Greece consolidated its tax office network, reducing the number of local offices from 288 to 119 in just over a year, and reorganized operations around functions rather than geography. As revenue collections improved—thus reinforcing the political will required to continue reforms—the next step involved granting greater autonomy to the tax authority.

A landmark law in 2016 transferred responsibility for tax administration to a new, independent authority with its own budget and governance framework. The law also established that the tax administration’s management board and governor be selected through an open competition with clearly defined criteria. The Independent Authority for Public Revenue became operational in 2017, giving Greece a tax administration insulated from political interference and focused on results.

The impact was tangible. During this period, the tax-to-GDP ratio rose by 1.8 percentage points, from 25.8 percent in 2013 to 27.6 percent in 2017, reflecting stronger compliance and improved institutional capacity.

 

2018-2025: Digital transformation

While digital tools had been introduced earlier, the decisive push came after the institutional foundations were firmly in place. By this stage, the tax administration had the governance, skills, and credibility required to make digitalization stick. Between 2020 and 2025, in part in response to the pandemic, Greece rolled out an integrated suite of digital systems—from back‑office analytics to real‑time electronic invoicing and point‑of‑sale connectivity.

These reforms made compliance easier for taxpayers and provided auditors with sharper tools to identify risks and target enforcement where it mattered most.

The results were clear. VAT compliance improved significantly, with VAT revenues  increasing by 2.4 percentage points of GDP over 15 years, from 7.1 percent in 2010 to about 9.5 percent in 2025.