No one likes paying taxes, but Greeks seem to have an especially strong aversion to handing over their money to the state. Dimitris Georgakopoulos, the man in charge of taxation at the Ministry of Finance, says the attitude dates back to the 400-year-long Ottoman rule over Greece, when people evaded taxes as a form of resistance. Ordinary Greeks point to a more immediate cause. "Everyone cheats," says lawyer Elena Tzanetakou, 29, as she rushes out of a tax office in Athens after filing paperwork for a client. "The system is corrupt and it always has been, so people think, 'Why should...
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