News: Greek taxman gives away seized Ferraris in new weekly raffle

THE TAXMAN isn’t usually known for his generosity but in Greece, anyone who files their tax return on time, stands to win a supercar such as a Ferrari or a Lamborghini.

The novel incentive is the brainchild of the country’s Finance Ministry which is keen to stamp out Greece’s well-established black market by rewarding honest tax payers in the new, weekly raffle. But rather than buying the cars only to give them away, the government is taking them from its store of vehicles seized from the country’s tax dodgers.

The luxury collection includes at least 10 Ferraris as well as a number of Lamborghinis, Porsches, Jaguars and Mercedes. They are currently gathering dust in the warehouses of Greece’s Organization of Public Materials Management.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the finance minister, said, “It is better to give the cars to the citizens, rather than let them rust.”