- AADE inspectors hit tourist hotspots from Rhodes to Crete, finding 400+ tax violations
- In Chania, a grill house and a sunbed rental “forgot” 49 receipts
- Rhodes topped the leaderboard with beer boxes and phantom invoices worth nearly €7,000
- All caught businesses were rewarded with a 48-hour holiday, forced and unpaid
The Summer Games of Tax Evasion
Every August, tourists flock to Crete for its stunning beaches, delicious cuisine, and abundant sunshine. The tax inspectors, however, come for sport. Between August 16 and 25, AADE’s mixed teams toured Rhodes, Paros, Crete, Hydra, Corfu, and Piraeus, tallying over 400 “oops, no receipt” violations.
Rhodes stole the show: 306 boxes of beer without proper labels, plus 285 bottles “slipped” past the tills, a neat €7,000 worth of liquid creativity. Hydra provided 45 missing receipts from two bars, while Paros delivered the minimalist version—three unissued invoices totaling €1,800.
And Chania? Modest, but respectable. A grill house and a sunbed rental racked up 49 invisible receipts, proving that whether you’re flipping souvlaki or charging for shade, there’s always room for “forgetfulness.”
The House Always Wins (Until It Doesn’t)
In all cases, AADE inspectors handed down fines and slapped 48-hour closures on the offending businesses; for owners, that meant two days of staring at locked doors. For the rest of us, it’s a reminder that while Crete is famous for hospitality, some corners still prefer creative accounting over cash registers.
So next time you get your frappé without a receipt, smile. You might be a supporting actor in Greece’s longest-running summer drama: The Never-Ending Battle of Receipts vs. Reality.
