Car repair shops emerge as champions in tax evasion, with 6 out of 10 showing violating behavior, despite the activation of new digital control tools in the sector, such as the Digital Customer Registry.
This picture is reflected in data from the 290,000 audits conducted by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) last year on high-risk businesses, imposing taxes and fines totaling €3.1 billion. In 2025, the average violation rate was 29.7%, increased by at least 2.5 percentage points compared to 2024 when it had reached 27.1%.
At the top of the ranking is wholesale and retail trade in motor vehicle and motorcycle repair with a rate of 61%, followed by land transport and pipeline transport with 58.1%, rental and leasing activities with 56.2%, human health services with 54%, and other personal services with 50.3%. Following are crop and animal production and related activities with 40.8%, wholesale trade with 33.9%, food service activities with 32.4%, accommodation with 31.6%, retail trade with 29.3%, food industry with 28.8%, and other general sectors with 19.1%.
Regarding the “geography” of audits, a total of 37,493 were conducted, of which 11,695 within headquarters and 25,798 outside headquarters, with violation rates of 25.31% and 31.77% respectively. At the Tax Region level, Thessaloniki recorded the largest number of audits, while the Patras and Piraeus Regions showed the highest violation rates, especially in out-of-jurisdiction audits (36.27% and 34.93% respectively).
At the regional level, the highest rates were found in Western Greece (39.9% in 3,246 audits), the Peloponnese (39.6% in 3,680 audits), and Thessaly (38.2% in 2,976 audits). Conversely, the lowest rate was recorded in Western Macedonia (24.9% in 1,339 audits).
Regarding distribution by sector, 22,020 audits were conducted in food service businesses and 11,149 in retail trade (excluding vehicles), with average violation rates of 32.4% and 29.3% respectively.
In the framework of penalty enforcement, beyond the fines of the Tax Procedure Code, control authorities proceeded to suspend operations of 680 professional establishments and imposed special monetary sanctions on 293 businesses. The highest percentage of “closures” was recorded in the food service sector (40.44%), followed by crop and animal production (33.68%) and retail trade (9%), while 16% concerns other sectors.
The main priorities of partial on-site audits and investigations during the previous year focused on:
- Networks for issuing and receiving fictitious tax documents
- Tourism businesses, accommodation and short-term rentals
- Technical professions and the construction sector
- E-commerce and undeclared online sales
- Food service businesses and electronic ordering systems
- Fuel stations
- Booking platforms
- Card payments
- Use of counterfeit software for issuing tax documents
- Wholesale trade (food, pharmaceuticals, technology products, metals, etc.)
- Sectors with high contribution to the VAT gap
- Social media for detecting undeclared income
- Wealth increase audits
