A woman walks outside the Greek parliament in Athens, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Greece has imposed deeply unpopular spending cuts and tax hikes over the past three years, to secure vital international rescue loans. Greece is in line to get 49.1 billion euro ($64 billion) between now and March, with 34.3 billion euro of that amount due in the coming days. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A woman walks outside the Greek parliament in Athens, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Greece has imposed deeply unpopular spending cuts and tax hikes over the past three years, to secure vital international rescue loans. Greece is in line to get 49.1 billion euro ($64 billion) between now and March, with 34.3 billion euro of that amount due in the coming days. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Pedestrians walk in front of a branch of Proton bank in central Athens, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Prominent Greek businessman Lavrentis Lavrentiadis was arrested Thursday Dec. 13 over his alleged involvement in a scandal involving the Proton Bank, in which he was the major shareholder. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Striking Greek municipal employees chant slogans and bang on pots and pans during a protest outside at the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Greek municipal workers demonstrated against government plans to suspend 2,000 civil servants for potential dismissal due to state budget cuts. (AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis)
Striking Greek municipal employees chant slogans during a protest outside at the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece as a banner reads in Greek "bailout agreement" Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Greek municipal workers demonstrated against government plans to suspend 2,000 civil servants for potential dismissal due to state budget cuts. AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greek tax collection is still falling well short of key targets that need to be met to reduce the government's staggering debt pile, the European Union warned on Monday.
An EU task force helping Greece overcome the financial crisis that brought it to the brink of bankruptcy said Athens still has trouble dealing with old, outstanding tax claims. With 2 months to go in 2012, it was still about a billion euros behind the EU target of recovering ?2 billion ($2.6 billion).
In a report it said Greece made only 88 audits of large taxpayers, well short of a 2012 target of 300, and 467 of "high-wealth individuals," below a 1,300 target.
Overall, EU Vice President Olli Rehn said Greece was nevertheless tackling problems "with determination and resolve."
Greece has been surviving on rescue loans from its partners in the 17-country eurozone and the International Monetary Fund since 2010.
The creditors agreed just last week to pay out the latest batch of loans after agreeing a series of debt relief measures, such as lowering the interest Greece has to pay on the loans and the completion of a bond buyback scheme.
Ratings agency Moody's warned that Greece's debt remains unsustainable despite those measures.
The continuing drop in Greek economic output, it argued, made it "unlikely" the country would be able to control its national debt "without further reduction on principal." That would mean that Greece's existing creditors ? mainly other euro governments and the IMF ? would have to take a cut on their loans, something they have so far ruled out.
In the short-term, the disbursement of the next batch of loans will keep Greece from going bankrupt and triggering more turmoil in financial markets.
Athens will get a total of ?49.1 billion ($64 billion) between now and March, with ?34.3 billion to be paid up front. A Greek government official said that payment of the ?34.3 billion would be completed Monday, but gave no further details. The official only spoke on condition of anonymity, not being authorized to speak to the media.
In return for the money that will see Greece through the winter months, the country had to commit to further austerity measures, including more spending cuts and tax increases that are set to extend a recession that started in late 2008.
With unemployment topping 25 percent, the government on Monday extended a freeze on the repossession of most primary homes through 2013.
Taxation is a particularly tough issue to deal with. "The Greek Tax administration is falling short of targets and is not well placed to meet end-2012 benchmarks," said the quarterly report from the EU task force, which aims to help Greece implement its reforms.
The report did insist that the new government of Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was strongly committed to an overall reform of the tax system.
Last week, the Greek government proposed legislation for a simplified tax system by which people earning more than ?42,000 ($55,000) per year will now be taxed at a new top rate of 42 percent.
For years, Greeks have been complaining about the uncertainty created by an ever-changing tax system, arguing it undermined compliance and revenue.
Tax evasion has long been a major problem in Greece and other countries hit by the financial crisis.
In Spain, where tax fraud is rampant, as much as ?90 billion ($115 billion) is lost each year to tax fraud ? the equivalent of the country's national debt, according to Spain's main tax inspectors union.
Tax evasion of all types in Italy every year totals about ?240 billion ($300 billion), or 15 percent of the country's gross domestic product of ?1.6 trillion ($2 trillion), tax police estimate. The sum amounts to more than a third of Italy's yearly total receipts from tax ? ?676 billion ($860 billion), according to 2011 figures from Eurostat.
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Casert reported from Brussels.
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