Monthly Archives: April 2015

In an effort to bolster crumbling budget revenues, the Finance Ministry is considering offering a 10-15 percent income tax discount for those who choose to pay their dues in a lump sum this year.

Although the state is desperate for ready cash, the online platform for the submission of income tax statements is not expected to be ready before May 10, according to Alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani, with a 10-day extension to the June 30 submission deadline already being considered.

If there are any additional changes introduced to the statement form, then taxpayers are certain to be granted a further extension.

The deadline for the first income tax installment is July 31, according to the law.

The revenue shortfall is estimated to have come to nearly 1 billion euros since the start of the year: The latest data point to a 675-million-euro gap, while in April there was already a hole of 250 million.

source:ekathimerini.com

ALL Catholic schools, at least 40 public schools and the University of Newcastle will remain closed on Wednesday as storm clean-ups and repairs continue.

The Catholic Schools Office last night confirmed that all Catholic schools within the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese will remain closed due to damage and further threats from the ongoing storm. The Catholic Schools Office will also be closed. Macquarie College is also closed, as is Dungog community Preschool.

The Department of Education last night confirmed that the following public schools will definitely remain closed on Wednesday: Anna Bay Public, Belmont High, Belmont Public, Bobs Farm Public, Bonnells Bay Public, Callaghan College Jesmond Campus, Callaghan College Waratah Campus, Cardiff High School, Charlestown South Public, Elermore Vale Public, Fern Bay Public, Glendale High, Glendore Public, Grahamstown Public, Hamilton North Public, Hunter River High, Hunter Sports High, Irrawang High, Irrawang Public, Islington Public, Jewells Public, Karuah Public, Kotara School, Lake Macquarie High, Mayfield East Public, Mayfield West Public, Medowie Public, Minmi Public, New Lambton South Public, Newcastle East Public, Newcastle High, Newcastle Middle School, Raymond Terrace Public, Salt Ash Public, Seaham Public, Speers Point Public, Stockton Public, Tanilba Bay Public, Wakefield School, Waratah Public, Waratah West Public and Wirreanda Public.

A department spokesman said most of the schools will be closed because of storm damage including fallen trees, cuts to power, broken windows from storm debris and water inundation.

Schools not included on the list will be open on Wednesday, but parents are urged to check for changes made overnight to their school’s website, or to their school’s social media posts.

Hunter TAFE will make a decision on its campuses on Wednesday morning. Students and staff are urged to check the TAFE website for further updates.

source:theherald.com.au

THREE dead, dozens of houses severely damaged, scores of flood rescues, hundreds of trees down, thousands of calls for help and tens of thousands without power.

Such was the dreadful toll of the east coast low that tore its way through the Hunter on Tuesday.

The storm brought with it 135kmh winds and rainfall not seen for at least 50 years to create record river levels and stretch emergency services to their limits.

The normally sleepy town of Dungog awoke to tragedy.

Three elderly residents were found dead as the Myall Creek broke its banks and poured through the centre of town, taking at least four homes with it, moving another off its foundations and flooding at least another six.

Police were still waiting for flood waters to recede so the houses could be searched, but they had not received any more reports of missing people on Tuesday night.

The dead included a woman discovered in her flooded bedroom, a man found on his verandah not long after being seen on his roof and a second man in the yard of his retirement village.
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Police are investigating whether all three drowned after flood waters rose above the roofs of their houses.

Several campers missing and feared drowned were found alive after being washed away in flood waters at Stroud.

They never stood a chance as chest-high waters poured out of Mill Brook and Mill Creek and through Stroud showground.

At Gostwick Bridge near Paterson, the Paterson River peaked at 16.1 metres, the highest level on record after rising above the 1978 mark, while flood waters from the Williams and Hunter rivers also blocked numerous roads along the river flats.

Emergency services had made more than 50 flood rescues by late Tuesday afternoon, including grabbing seven people off the roof of a Nine Mile Creek house and destroying two rescue boats while a mother and two children were saved from a house shifted by floodwater at Greta.

The high number of rescues, many of people who had become stranded attempting to cross flooded roads, prompted emergency services chiefs to tell residents to use common sense.

‘‘Look after yourself, look after your family, look after your neighbours and stay safe,’’ Northern Region commander Assistant Commissioner Jeff Loy said.

‘‘Don’t go venturing where you don’t need to.’’

Weather expert Don White said the 148mm of rain that fell at Maitland in an hour on Tuesday morning was the heaviest hourly fall in the Hunter since at least the 1960s, and possibly since the 1870s.

Many parts of the Hunter received 300mm in just over a day.

Countless trees were uprooted in the softened earth and gale-force winds, many creating huge damage bills as they tore through homes and businesses.

The carnage included a massive gum tree which crashed through the centre of a Rankin Park house, narrowly missing a couple asleep in a bedroom.

More than 200,000 people were without power at certain times on Tuesday, and power providers have warned that some houses may remain in the dark for days as workers plough through the backlog.

Hunter Water pleaded for customers to preserve water after water pumping stations were also struck with power outages.

State Emergency Service spokeswoman Amanda Hyde said the SES had received more than 2000 calls for assistance across the Hunter by 7pm on Tuesday and crews were readying themselves for more chaos as a second low was due to hit the Hunter coast late on Tuesday night.

It was the first time the SES had sent blanket SMS alerts to Newcastle residents warning of expectations of ‘‘high-velocity flash flooding in local creeks and watercourses’’ across the city and its suburbs.

SES Deputy Commissioner Steven Pearce said he had never seen cyclonic winds last for 24 hours as they had in the Hunter.

‘‘We have rainfall recorded in excess of 300mm in some areas, which has caused intense and catastrophic flash flooding and we’ve had homes completely washed away in Dungog,” Mr Pearce said.

Reports of significant damage came from most corners of the Hunter.

Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie suffered severe weather, while the Coalfields and Lower Hunter went underwater as usually tame brooks and creeks overflowed.

More than a dozen people were evacuated from a unit block at Merewether after it lost its roof.

Most of the Hunter’s rail lines were severely affected and buses stopped at 7pm on Tuesday night.

There was chaos on major thoroughfares as well.

Parts of the Pacific Highway, Industrial Drive, The Esplanade at Warners Bay and John Renshaw Drive were blocked for considerable periods of time.

More than 100 schools across Newcastle, the Hunter and the Central Coast will remain shut on Wednesday, as will the University of Newcastle campuses at Callaghan and Ourimbah.

A decision on whether Hunter TAFE campuses open will be made on Wednesday morning.

Weatherwatch’s Don White said the east coast low was not as ferocious as the Pasha Bulker storm of 2007 but had continued for more than three times as long.

NSW Premier Mike Baird said it was too early to say how the three elderly residents had died at Dungog.

‘‘It looks very much like we have lost three residents. They are elderly residents, and at the moment those circumstances are being worked through,’’ he said.

‘‘… It is obviously a tragedy for their family and friends, and all of us are thinking of them at this time.’’

He said the Dungog area was cut off but ‘‘we are doing everything possible we can to support them’’.

‘‘There are a number of homes that have been lost in this. There’s obviously a number of roofs that have been taken off, and we’ve also lost life,’’ he said.

‘‘It is a huge storm event that is wreaking havoc across NSW at the moment.’’

source:theherald.com.au

Athens, Greece.

This new law is good news

Many of you who own homes in Greece may not be using them as often as you wish or maybe not at all. You also may have thought of renting out your property at times without wanting to commit to a long-term rental agreement or even selling your property but decided to hold on to it.

The good news is that now, you have another option. The Greek government has recently enforced a new fast-tracking law, Law No. 4179/2013, which allows property owners to rent out their homes exceeding 40m² as a short-term holiday rental without registering as a hotel business.

A specific EOT License, issued only by architects and engineers, is granted by The Greek National Tourism Organisation – EOT. Once acquired, you can rent out your beach house, your city apartment or even your patriko in the village for a period of up to 3 months within a year, to one or more individual tenants depending on the surface area of your rental.

When the licence is issued, each property receives a unique EOT MHTE number which must be displayed when advertising on all printed media and online. Owners who fail to do so will be faced with hefty fines.

Additionally, as in long-term rentals, all income gained short-term must be declared on yearly tax returns to be taxed accordingly.

However, to take advantage of this new law, a ‘Declaration of Legal Property Status – Law No. 4178/13’ is required. All property applying must be legal, meaning that all built structures on-site must comply with what has been declared on the building permit and drawings.

You may be wondering, is it worth the fuss? Some benefits to consider other than the additional income are the fact that regular maintenance will help prevent more serious problems than when the property is uncared for and, most importantly, the fact that you can still use your property at any time.

source:ekathimerini.com

An open rally in support of crisis-stricken Greece has been organized in Melbourne for Tuesday, April 21.

Let Greece Breathe holds a public meeting in Melbourne to raise solidarity towards the SYRIZA government and the Greek people.

Let Greece Breathe is a campaign for hope and justice aiming to show that Greece and the Greek people are not alone in their hour of need.

The Australia-Greece Solidarity Campaign has been inspired by the resistance of the Greek people to the harsh austerity program imposed on that country.
One of the group’s basic mottos is ‘A victory for Greece will be a victory for people everywhere’, which to them proves why the battle is so fierce.

The members behind the campaign invite Australian citizens and residents to show their solidarity towards the SYRIZA government and the Greek people, at the Trades Hall (corner Lygon and Victoria St Carlton) on Tuesday 21 April 7.00 pm.

A group of speakers will give a lecture on Greece’s current situation, the politics of harsh austerity and the treadmill of neverending debt repayments which have seen Greek people pushed to the extremes of poverty.

Speakers include political economist Adam Rorris, Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Federal Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt MP, AMWU national president Andrew Dettmer, ACTU president Ged Kearney and more, including a video message from a spokesperson of the Greek government.

The aim of the Let Greece Breathe campaign is to oppose the marginalisation of communities and support the right of the Greek people to democratically determine their own future free from external intervention whilst learning from the Greek resistance to austerity policies.

source:Neos Kosmos

Leaders to meet on sidelines of Brussels summit on Thursday as talks drag, cash ebbs.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday in Brussels in a bid to secure a statement of political support from Berlin amid tough negotiations with creditors and dwindling finances.

The meeting, which is to take place on the sidelines of a European Union leaders’ emergency meeting on immigration, was announced in a brief statement from Tsipras’s office. The move came amid reports that negotiations taking place in Paris between Greek government officials and representatives of the creditors had made some small progress but remained far from securing a deal that could unlock crucial rescue funding.

In comments to reporters in Athens Tuesday, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said he was confident an agreement would be reached soon while admitting that no breakthrough was likely at a meeting of his eurozone counterparts in Riga, Latvia, later this week.

“There will be a deal, a comprehensive agreement,” he said. “But this does not mean that there will be an agreement at Friday’s Eurogroup.” “There is clear convergence,” he added, noting however that the International Monetary Fund “was demanding the deregulation of the labor market,” which he said has already been hit hard.

A government source told Kathimerini that “ground has been covered” in talks but admitted that “the progress… is not enough for Riga.” Sources said Athens is aiming for a deal before the next scheduled Eurogroup after Riga – a meeting in Brussels on May 11 – with the possibility of an extraordinary Eurogroup toward the end of next week.

Varoufakis is expected to face a cool reception in Riga, particularly from his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has repeated warnings for Greece to push reforms and Tuesday indicated that no fresh loans will be released unless a deal is reached in the coming weeks, with June 30 being the ultimate deadline when Greece’s four-month bailout extension ends.

Other European officials also expressed concern, notably European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who said he was “absolutely not satisfied with the course of talks so far.”

“There is urgent need for greater efforts on the Greek side,” he said. “The intensity of talks has increased in the past four or five days but is not yet at the maturity needed to be able to reach a quick conclusion.” He said Greece should not be abandoned but added that it cannot be supported “at any price.”

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, for his part, said a Greek eurozone exit was “not an option.”

source:ekathimerini.com