Everyone knows.....

Everyone, whether they be Greek, foreign resident or not, knows that doing things, official that is, can take some time. Registering a birth, for example, can take several days including visits to several different agencies and all the queuing that involves. Well, doing your tax return falls into that category too and it isn't helped by the Byzantine addressing system here either, but more of that later. We started our tax return process by first going to enquire about changing our house address. We were duly given the forms and, when we asked about doing the actual return, were told to see an accountant, around 40 euros each was suggested - not bad at all for someone removing all the hassle. Good so far - we took the forms home and set about the task of finding a good accountant that would do the biz, as they say. Fortunately our neighbour suggested someone - that bit was easy. So, off to see the accountant - no appointment necessary, just drop in after 10.00 a.m. Lovely guy, speaks good English and even told us we would possibly have to pay a small amount in tax. So, far so good. "So", he said, "bring in all your receipts for purchases last year". Strange, we thought, but OK go along with it. "And how have you lived for the past year?". We had been drawing money from our foreign bank account from ATM's - not good so far. "OH, you'll need the pink slips from the bank for all money you've brought into Greece from your bank". Getting serious now, we thought, and began to get a bit wary.

Off to the bank to try to get pink slips for our ATM withdrawals - no go there - only transfers from bank to bank. Fortunately we had a pink slip for the money we had transferred to buy our old second-hand car, so that helped a bit.

Back to the accountant with all our receipts and the one pink slip. Now we were told to return our change of address forms to the tax office and give them a paper that said we were married and would be filing a joint return - another hour-long queue at the office, etc, plus the drive to and fro and the parking problems, etc, etc.

The accountant said he would be filing the return on-line - new technology - no more queuing etc. But, no, not quite yet, anyway. He now gave us another form which requested the on-line password to do the on-line filing. Back to the tax office for another 1.5 hour wait. Success with that, it took just 1 minute for the password to be issued, and I must say here that the people working in the tax office are always great, polite, speak English and are extremely competent - especially with queues of people waiting and all the pressures that must exert upon them.

Now parking in Corfu Town is at a premium, so I usually park on a pavement near the British Cemetery and enjoy the walk through the town centre- so getting the password to the accountant, was no problem and he seemed to be a happy bunny about it all. Incidentally, he told us we would have no tax to pay for last year and if we imported X amount of Euros from abroad this current year, we would have zero to pay next year too. Now, that was good news. So, after a month or so, goodness knows how many trips around town etc, it all seems to have been done.

Back to the Byzantine addressing methods. It's quite common here for mail to be delivered to the local cafenion and people go along, have a coffee and pick up their mail. It's also very common to give directions to a house like "Go to the centre of the village, turn right at the bakery, go along the alley for 200 metres, turn left at the small pink church and you'll see my house up on the hill. It's the one with the little yellow car outside - that is , of course, if I'm in at the time" It all helps keep everyone anonymous in a way, so only the local people really know who lives where. It all hinges on telephone numbers - that is apparently how you are identified - strange, but true. Opening a bank account is no problem with one of the ever-so-vague addresses and a mobile phone number, BUT, getting on-line banking and an ATM card require a land-line phone number. (?????)

But, for all this, I can't think of anywhere nicer to live - it's beautiful, friendly, laid-back and even sunny at times.