Report: License for luxury Mykonos club suspended but tax cheats roll on

Even as the license for a high-end Mykonos beach club said to sell champagne at 1,000 euros ($1190) a bottle has been suspended, reports indicated that widespread tax evasion on the island growing notorious for high living by foreign high rollers is continuing.

The license for the club Nammos, featured in a piece by David Patrikarakos earlier in Politico, describing the island as a hedonism heaven, was taken away for now, the business newspaper Naftemporiki said,  because it was charged with exploiting a public beach.

Inspectors said the club’s management built a stage and metal-wood staircase on Aug. 31 to host a concert, something it said violated the lease contract’s terms.

Nammos has been targeted by inspectors over charges the club hosts sold-out concerts by big shot entertainers but doesn’t fully report the income that is taken in, instead claiming far lower amounts in a bid to avoid taxes. Tables were said to cost tens of thousands of euros, happily forked over by the wealthy.

On Nammos Beach renting a chaise lounge will cost 60 euros ($72) – more than 10 times the rate even on Santorini, which is even more famous and more crowded.

A pretty good, but not great hotel, will cost 1000 euros ($1200) a night, a price which doesn’t make the bling-blingers blink an eye, because they would miss the chance to see today’s celebrities such as Olympic sprint gold medalist Usain Bolt, or Kim Kardashian, who got rich and famous for nothing really, except showing her talents on a sex tape.

Luxury loungers that are bed-sized take over the beach: it’s not clear whether, like many Greek public beaches it’s just been usurped and the article said the main bar last year sold 35,000 bottles of champagne at 1,000 euros each – or 35,000,000 euros, some $42.06 million, enough to pop anyone’s cork.

Patrikarakos said he went there with a relative who told him many bars and restaurants were built unlawfully, a common practice in Greece where nothing is done about it. “All they do,” he says “is pay a fine each week — say between €1,000-€3,000, which is nothing compared to the profits they are raking in.”

THE GOOD LIFE

Meanwhile, the newspaper Kathimerini said stepped-up checks by tax inspectors on the island has brought in big revenues but failed to halt the phenomenon because fines are far less than businesses can make in only a few hours or less than a day of high-rates.

The paper said one bar paid one million euros ($1.19 million) in Value Added Taxes (VAT) – an indicator of how much money was rolling in – with the amount more than twice what it paid last year.

In April, 2016, Myconos Mayor Konstantinos Koukas asked the General Secretary of Public Property to ban the use of protected beaches for private gain as happens along Athens’ coast with impunity where people are charged to use beaches taken over by private companies who are allowed to keep operating.

Last year 44 fines for illegal exploitation were imposed on beachside businesses on Myconos, totaling 1 59 million euros ($1.89 million) and a fine of 800,000 euros ($952,680) was imposed on a beachside business for the illegal construction of four buildings without a permit, the paper said.

One businessman who spoke under the condition of anonymity said he had a scheme that paid well. “Every summer we’d get fined 14,000 euros for our activities on the beach. We would easily make that much in one day,” he said.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: rene boulay License: CC-BY-SA

Source: thenationalherald.com