This MIGHT have happened in a german hotel to you but it is far from daily practice. There is simply no way to compare southern Europe to northern Europe...
As I said: I have been a travelling businessman for more than 30 years and I have never heard of such a thing - and when i leave the plabe in Greece EVERYTHING is like that (although all cafes and restaurants give you proper bills for years now).
You also can compare Germany's highly efficient bueaucracy with Greece. Of course there's too much regulation - everywhere in the world - but ridicoulos comparisons like this help nobody.
Not "might", did and does. After years of chuckling at it as a hotel customer, I actually find myself now with a few cards on both sides of the table in Germany.
I must admit that the description of German bureaucracy as "efficient" did raise a slight smile.
In Germany hotel owners in my direct, repeated experience ask you politely if you would like a €10 discount for cash payment... After you've been a regular customer for a while. Same thing, shades of grey, and I support it.
I'm too a German since 54 years but nobody asks me that yet in a hotel. It's also very uncommon here to negotiate prices. The only area where you can avoid taxes I know of are taxi and craftsmen (usually you agree on a 50/50 base here).
Silvaire, yes (although i'm FAR from beeing a lover of bureaucracy) - if you compare german bureaucracy with any (USA included) other country it can be said is very efficient.
That doesn not mean I like it. I don't.
One of the funniest things I remember on this topic was when a solicitor offered me the "VAT off" if I paid him cash 
This was years ago...
On recent trips to Greece, I have found it an even more of a cash economy than previously.
But, let's be frank about this, can you see anybody on a nice sunny Greek island paying tax?
They wake up in the morning. The sun is shining. They pop out in a boat and catch some fish. They sell the fish to a restaurant on the beach. For cash - what else???
They sit at a cafe and have a coffee, play cards, discuss the world, watch the women walk by, and enjoy the stress free life.
You don't need to be a businessman to realise that tax just isn't going to feature on their event horizon...
The only people paying tax are going to be obviously visible businesses, big companies, companies which trade B2B only, and most of the industry in the big cities. Plus employees of these companies will pay PAYE, as will public sector employees. On the islands... no way.
The funny thing is not the above, but that all those politicians who flew over from Brussels, on €3000 tickets to LGAV, keen to get another great old country (the cradle of civilisation of there ever was one) into the EU and the eurozone and immortalise themselves by getting their names on the bottom of yet another treaty, turned a blind eye to it while partying, getting pissed and staying in €1000/night hotels. They knew the numbers would never add up. But it didn't matter.
Greece will always be Greece and I am very happy for them
It would be a total tragedy if Greece became north-European.
Silvaire, yes (although i'm FAR from beeing a lover of bureaucracy) - if you compare german bureaucracy with any (USA included) other country it can be said is very efficient.
American bureaucracy, local and especially Federal, is generally terrible and yes, worse than German. However, the size and scope of American bureaucracy is a fraction of the deep involvement of German bureaucracy in daily life. As a result, bureaucracy in the US is easier to avoid and as a result of non-involvement the bureaucratic process is more often 100% efficient :-)
Peter, what you write is VERY true - and I feel the same. But actually I feel I (and many other Europeans) do not want to pay the taxes for many of these people. Especially not for the ones who brought 200 bn Euros to Switzerland.
Being "half mediterranean" nobody has to convince me about the southern lifestyle.
Also my sympathy only goes so far. When I see the german chancellor portrayed as a Nazi on Greek newspapers or when I constantly have to fight against corruption, well that's no fun.
I have to fight corruption in my business in a eastern country and I tell you - it's exhausting.
Silvaire, in practical life i don't really see where german bureaucracy bothers me. Once a year I send ind/pay my tax.... that's it. Every ten years I need a passport. To register a car in Munich takes... well, about 15 minutes. And after 20 years of flying I am yet to see an official do a ramp check (like they happen all the time in the USA)
alexisvc - if you lived outside of German bureaucracy for a while, I think you would have a different perspective.
well, that's not a very concrete fast ;-) but how can i argue? (Maybe it counts that i have a company abroad, a second home in Greece, a family in Croatia and have spent about 3 years i the USA?) I do think that what I write is based on facts.
(fast=fact) :-)
