Greek Property Tax

Persons who have acquired and still own property in Greece before the 31st of December 2006 either by purchase, inheritance, or parental gift and who have made the appropriate E9 property declarations in at least one of the fiscal years 2005, 2006 or 2007 do not need to take any action now.

For persons who have acquired or disposed of property in Greece between the first of January 2007 and the 31st of December 2007: you must file an extra E9 form by the 31st of March 2008. This E9 declaration is in addition to the initial tax return which must be lodged by May 2008.

If you (or your family) own land in Greece, you must register it with the new land registry between June 17th and September 30th if you live in Greece. If you do not currently reside in Greece, you will have until December 30th, 2008 to submit your title documents. This is important - land could be lost to you if not properly re-registered. And it doesn't matter if you've owned it for generations - this is a new registry designed to eventually bring Greek property calculations and rights into line with the rest of the EU.

Greek property taxes are among the lowest in the OECD at just 1.3% of GDP, but are so complex that real estate owners are liable to pay up to 14 different taxes and levies related to their property, says the latest OECD survey of the Greek economy. Moreover, while property tax accounts for only 0.14% of total tax revenue, collecting it represents 1.1% of total tax administration costs.

Streamlining the property tax system and implementing a national land registry would allow taxation of property based on real value of assets, the survey says. Greek property taxes are only half the OECD average level of 2.6% of GDP and well below the European Union average of 2%.

Property taxes are highest in the United Kingdom, at 4% of GDP and lowest in the Czech Republic where they are 0.6% of GDP.

Greek Property