Between May and September 2025, Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) carried out sweeping tax inspections across the country, uncovering widespread non-compliance — particularly in popular summer destinations across both the mainland and the islands. The large-scale campaign, which targeted thousands of businesses, exposed extensive tax violations, especially in the tourism sector.
According to the authority’s findings, the highest rates of tax breaches were recorded in Western Greece, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Crete, and the South Aegean. In certain areas, including Corinth and Evia, nearly half of all businesses inspected were found to be in violation of tax regulations. By contrast, lower rates of non-compliance — below 25 percent — were observed in the North Aegean, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, and Western Macedonia.
Roughly 41 percent of all inspections focused on tourism-related enterprises such as restaurants, bars, hotels, and other accommodation providers — sectors that form the backbone of the Greek summer economy. Within these industries, one in three businesses was found to have engaged in some form of tax violation.
Beyond routine checks, the AADE conducted a series of coordinated operations based on intelligence reports, including one dubbed “I’ll Take You on a Cruise,” which targeted day-cruise vessels operating around Santorini, Kos, and other islands. Inspectors boarded the boats to verify receipts, point-of-sale connections, and electronic reporting systems.
Over the summer, authorities imposed fines and temporary closures — ranging from 48 hours to several days — on more than 300 businesses, the majority of which were in the catering and beach service sectors. Inspectors also uncovered 202 cases in which point-of-sale (POS) systems were not linked to cash registers, resulting in fines amounting to €2.59 million.
Among the most notable cases were a restaurant in Heraklion, Crete, that failed to transmit 515 receipts worth €275,000 to the government’s digital e-send platform and was fined and shut down for four days; a carpentry business on Paros that failed to declare transactions totaling €111,000 and was fined more than €33,000; and a supermarket in Gytheio, Laconia, that withheld fiscal data worth €101,000. In Serres, a confectionery was fined and closed for four days after omitting transactions exceeding €100,000, while in Mykonos, both an art shop and an Italian restaurant were sanctioned for failing to issue receipts worth tens of thousands of euros.
Similar violations were identified in retail, hospitality, and entertainment venues across the country — from beach bars in Santorini and Rhodes to cafés in the Ionian islands and restaurants in Samos, where one repeat offender was ordered to shut down for 96 hours.
Tax evasion also extended to other seasonal sectors. Businesses renting umbrellas and sunbeds on beaches in Chania, Rethymno, Rhodes, Samos, Corfu, Syros, Sifnos, Poros, and Aegina were fined and temporarily closed for failing to issue receipts amounting to €10,000. Likewise, hair salons and beauty parlors in major cities such as Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, and Heraklion — as well as on several Aegean islands — were penalized and shut down for failing to declare receipts worth more than €55,000 in total.
