Dear members and friends of Aegeus,

At a time of continuing economic crisis and recession, the Greek Ministry of Finance is once again imposing a business tax on any company or organisation including non-profit ones,  a tax that now amounts to 500 Euros every year. Practically, this means that about 10 % of the annual subscription of each one of our members is now paid back to the Greek Ministry of Finance, thus greatly reducing the limited resources of Aegeus, resources that would have been geared towards the implementation of the Aegeus projects. (Please also note that a similar tax was already imposed to Aegeus in 2011 and 2012, for more information please see: http://www.aegeussociety.org/gr/index.php/aegeus-news/operation-tax-2011/)

We take the view that the implementation of this measure is unfair towards all non -profit organizations, that normally have minimal resources, resulting in jeopardising their activities.   Paradoxically enough, while the Greek Ministry of Finance considers us as a simple business requiring us this tax, it excludes us from the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) programmes, because then we are considered as a non-profit organisation… Aegeus will of course continue to comply with the current financial and legal regulations, but we would like on this occasion to express our distress against such a socially unfair measure.

Despite adversity, we shall continue our efforts, and are confident that we will succeed with the support of all of our members. We would like to address a plea to our members who have not yet renewed their subscription for 2013, to do so, provided of course that they wish to maintain their commitment with Aegeus. In order to assist members who do not remember if they have renewed their subscription or not, we will be soon sending out an email reminder.

Finally we would like to urge our Aegeus friends to consider the possibility of becoming members of Aegeus therefore ensuing that our projects and activities could be carried out in full in the future.