Never mind that green levies account for less than a 10th of an energy bill.
Greeks have plenty of incentive to do so: government levies account for 43% of labour costs, compared with the rich-country average of 26%.A big shadow economy, naturally, crimps government revenue.
These levies account for approximately 35% of all federal revenues; they consume close to 17% of worker salaries; and for three out of every four households, they represent a larger portion of their tax responsibility than dreaded, hated income taxes.
FOR a levy that accounts for less than 5% of total public revenues, council tax arouses high political anxiety.
The proposed 25% levy on accounts over €100,000 would strike Cyprus's wealthy foreign clients most of all – the vast number of them, 80% according to Citibank, being Russian.
However, as Bank of Cyprus UK Limited is a separately capitalised, UK-incorporated bank, it is subject to UK regulation and its customers will not be hit by any levy on accounts of any size, nor will there be any Cyprus-style capital controls limiting withdrawals to €300 a day.
"The notion of us threatening to seize assets or levy bank accounts or sue people is very concerning to me because this is not happening," Simendinger said.
He said thrift officials realized there was drug money in the savings and loan when the Internal Revenue Service issued levies for accounts in June 1984 held by two men linked to Miguel Felix Gallardo, a kingpin in the Guadalajara drug cartel in Mexico.
For-profit credit card companies, however, have no restrictions on the interest rate that they can levy on account holders.
