Golden Visa Residency does not oblige you to reside in the country but you must know that you are automatically classified as a Greek tax resident if you stay in Greece for more than 183 days a year. If this is the case, your worldwide income is taxed in Greece. But in order to avoid double taxation, as a foreigner, you must submit your annual tax return to the Greek tax authorities, with a certification, issued by the foreign tax office, reporting the amount of income earned in your home country and the corresponding tax paid.

On the other hand, if you own property in Greece but have no intention of living there permanently, you won’t be considered a Greek tax resident but you may have certain obligations. Non-Greek tax residents are liable to pay tax only on the income earned in Greece from property rentals and are not allowed any deductions or tax credits on their income.

During the purchase of real estate property in Greece, the transfer tax is mandatory. The property is taxed in two ways:

As foreigners, when you buy property in Greece, you are required to obtain a Tax Registration Number (TRN). You should authorize a Greek accountant to represent you   at the tax authority. Furthermore, the TRN is required to open a bank account and transfer money legally from abroad. In addition you need to file an annual tax return form (E1) regardless of whether you are liable to pay tax or not.

As a property owner in Greece you are responsible for paying Greek income tax if your property generates revenue, regardless of your permanent residence. For permanent or long term leasing, you should inform your Greek accountant about the name of the tenant and his tax number, the amount of rent per month and the duration of the lease which should exceed three months in any tax year.

In accordance with the Greek Law 4223/2013, anyone that has full property rights or owns property in Greece, is liable to pay an annual property tax. Since 2014, this Unified Real Estate Ownership Tax, commonly known as ENFIA has been imposed by the Greek Government on properties such as houses, apartments and even land.

All property owners in Greece, including the ones that have invested in real estate to acquire the Golden Visa are subject to the above tax every year for the properties they own.

Therefore, after the purchase of the property you will also be obliged to pay this annual ΕΝFΙΑ tax. The new tax applies to individuals as well as to entities, and includes land and farmland. If you have co-ownership, the payment equates to the percentage of the ownership of the property. The property tax rate can be calculated on the web site of the Greek tax authority (TAXIS) using your login details..

Furthermore, this tax is imposed on specific subcategories such as parking space in the buildings, covered parking areas, additional premises such as storage rooms and swimming pools.

The Property Tax is assessed according to the price of the property.  In other words, for a property worth over €200,000 the rate is 0.10%. For a property worth over €300,000 the rate is 0.15%. If the property value is in excess of €400,000 the rate is 0.25% and for a property in excess of €500,000 the rate corresponds to 0.35%. If the property is worth more than 2 million euros the rate is 1.10% and further increases are calculated all based on the value of the property.

The tax base is the “objective” property value as of January 1st of each tax year and is assessed by the tax authorities. The objective value simply means a realistic value as calculated by the tax authorities and is not always an indication of the commercial price or sale price of a property.  This tax consists of two different tax levies:

According to the Ministry of Finance, this year’s notifications for the payment of the Annual Property tax are available to all property owners through their personal online Tax Platform (TAXIS net) as of 25th of September.

Are there any exemptions for the ENFIA tax?

Recently, an amendment of the above law has exempted the ENFIA tax for property owners on the small islands in the Greek border areas. The exemption is for property owners, tax residents of Greece, whose main residence as shown in their annual tax declaration, is located on one of these islands