Tax office employees in Greece will stop carrying out preventive tax audits between August 17 and 26, a walkout that lands squarely inside the country’s peak tourist season and threatens to disrupt the tax authority’s summer campaign against tax evasion.
The action was called by the Panhellenic Federation of Tax Employees, known by its Greek acronym POE DOU, which represents staff at Greece’s tax authority, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, or AADE. The federation’s decision followed a formal legal notice it sent to senior government officials and to AADE’s management, raising concerns over working conditions, understaffing and the functioning of tax offices.
During the stoppage, employees will withdraw from preventive audits and from driving official service vehicles, according to the federation.
Awkward timing for AADE
The timing is especially sensitive for AADE, which has made preventive audits a central pillar of its operational plan for 2026 in the fight against tax evasion. The authority has scheduled a stepped up presence of audit teams in tourist destinations and at businesses it considers at higher risk of violations, including restaurants, hotels and other tourism related enterprises now at the height of their summer activity.
With staff staying away from field audits for 10 days, AADE’s planning is expected to take a hit, particularly in popular tourist areas where demand for oversight is greatest during this period.
What the tax officials are demanding
POE DOU’s list of grievances centers on chronic understaffing and stretched logistical resources. The federation is calling for measures to protect employees during tax audits, payment of overtime, and compensation for hours worked beyond the standard schedule.
It is also pushing for a higher audit allowance, the replacement of service vehicles it deems unfit for use, and enough drivers to meet the demands of field audits.
Separately, the federation has voiced opposition to AADE’s plans for internal reorganization, in particular the conversion of local tax offices, known as DOU, into centralized services. In its statement announcing the walkout, POE DOU said its goal was to draw attention to the problems facing its members and to clarify the scope of its demands.
A persistent staffing gap
The numbers underline the pressure facing Greece’s tax administration. AADE currently employs 7,213 tax officials, part of a total workforce of 11,945 people actually serving at the authority. That figure falls well short of the 16,120 authorized positions the authority is meant to fill, pointing to a structural staffing shortage that predates this month’s strike.
Against that backdrop, a 10 day work stoppage adds further strain to the planning of preventive audits, especially in the second half of August.
Digital oversight continues
AADE has said it will keep using its digital tools to monitor tax compliance and flag possible violations even as the stoppage proceeds, and taxpayers will continue to be served electronically through the authority’s online platforms.
Even so, the central question for AADE is whether it can maintain its capacity for on the ground preventive audits at a moment when tourist traffic in Greece is at its highest point of the year. The walkout puts POE DOU’s demands squarely in public view and tests how much the tax administration’s summer strategy against evasion can withstand at the height of the season.
