Greece isn't out on a limb in terms of collecting taxes, just at one end of a scale.

I experienced the differences in many EU countries first hand as when in business, we had companies in The UK, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Sweden and France. (As well as some non EU, Swtizerland, USA, Canada, Singapore and Australia.)

Some tax authorities were quicker to chase and penalise than others. The UK? Get your VAT return in quarterly. The first reminder included a small fine and their collection bailiffs don't need a separate warrant to take goods. Germany was as strict, and their corporation tax collection was just as strict, stricter than The UK.

If you forgot to do your VAT return in Ireland, just do it before the next one is due (although when The UK bailed them out a few years ago, tightening up was part of the deal.). Also, up till fairly recently, weekend working was traditionally cash in hand for many and the revenue allowed for large petty cash withdrawals without paperwork. That has ended of course but you can see the connection with their mini meltdown.

Other countries? Between the two. Oh, except Italy.

Bless them. To this day I don't understand Italian business law and how it is applied, especially in fiscal and revenue terms. I'm still a non executive director of my old firm there but I only get confused if I challenge our finance people.

I got out of business in 2003 but I still see the link between national debt and tightness of tax collection. Greece isn't somewhere we did much but even many years ago, I recall the difficulties in getting letters of credit for the small amounts our agent in Athens bought.