If you are a foreign national living in Greece, a Greek living abroad with obligations back home, or someone planning the move, the paperwork tends to be the part nobody warned you about. Tax numbers, tax residence, property, pensions, healthcare — each sits with a different authority, and most of it is in Greek.
We are a chartered accountancy and tax practice in Athens, working in English with international clients since 2008. This page covers what we most often help with.
To talk it through, call +30 210 8239877. The first conversation is a free 15-minute discovery call.
Foreigners in Greece — serving foreign nationals
Our team provides a comprehensive range of accounting services to both individuals and businesses throughout Greece. We offer complete solutions as well as customisable services, so you can take the parts you need rather than a package you don't. We also work with clients establishing businesses in Greece and with those seeking residency through the Golden Visa programme.
Tax and accounting for individuals
Some of the ways we assist individuals:
- Preparing and submitting your application for a Greek Tax Number (AFM) and acting for you before the tax authority, including where you are outside Greece
- Resolving pending tax matters, including historic ones
- Filing annual tax returns for residents living abroad
- Submitting detailed statements of rental income earned from real estate
- Providing tax representative services in Greece
- Submitting lease agreements online
- Accounting services for residents abroad
- Consultations with a tax adviser on your specific situation
Applying for a tax number is the single most common first job we do for people arriving in Greece. Almost nothing else — a bank account, a lease, a utility contract, a property purchase — can proceed without one. There is a Greek-language page on the process at /ekdosi-afm/ (in Greek).
Buying, owning and letting property in Greece
Many expatriates and second-generation Greeks want to buy property in Greece. Most find themselves navigating a system they don't fully understand, without the time or the local knowledge to deal with it alone. We handle property-related matters and offer a full range of property support services:
- Locating residential or commercial property to lease or purchase
- Negotiating and reviewing lease and sale agreements
- Registering property and managing land registry (Κτηματολόγιο) entries
- Tax planning and annual declarations on property income
- Tracing property titles and verifying the legal and current status of an estate
- Addressing adverse possession issues
- Landlord and tenant disputes and litigation
- Property insurance
Litigation, conveyancing and any other legal work is carried out by our partner law firm, Expat Law (expatlaw.gr). We coordinate the accounting and tax side alongside them so you are not running two conversations.
The Golden Visa programme
Greece grants residence permits to investors through its Golden Visa programme, giving the right to live in Greece and to travel within the Schengen area. Qualifying investment routes include real estate as well as other categories.
There are no minimum residence requirements attached to the permit, and it is renewable for as long as the qualifying investment is retained. The permit itself is granted by the competent Greek authority. We support the application at every stage and can act for you before the authorities where that is permitted and you have authorised us to, with the legal and immigration work delivered by our partner law firm, Expat Law — in most cases your job is to choose the property.
Greek-language page: /golden-visa/ (in Greek).
Article 5B — alternative taxation for foreign pensioners
Are you a pensioner considering a new life in another country? Greece offers a genuinely attractive option. Under Article 5B, foreign nationals receiving a pension from abroad can transfer their tax residence to Greece and have their foreign-sourced income taxed under an alternative regime rather than at ordinary rates.
Greece introduced the provision to attract retirees from abroad, and it stands comparison with similar schemes elsewhere in Europe. Pensioners entitled to a foreign pension are taxed at a flat rate on their foreign-sourced income for each tax year.
To qualify, a pensioner must:
- Not have been a Greek tax resident for five of the six years before transferring tax residence to Greece
- Transfer their tax residence from a country with which Greece has an administrative cooperation agreement in the field of taxation in force
The regime applies from the tax year following the year in which the application is submitted to the tax office.
If you are weighing up a move to Greece as a pensioner, this is a substantial part of the arithmetic. Greek-language page: /arthro-5b-syntaxiouhoi/ (in Greek).
Article 5C — income tax exemption for new residents
Considering a move back to Greece, or experiencing the Mediterranean way of life for the first time, and expecting to work here? Article 5C (Law 4758/2020) gives individuals who transfer their tax residence to Greece a partial exemption on income from salaried employment and business activity arising in Greece.
The conditions apply cumulatively. You must:
- Not have been a Greek tax resident for five of the six years before transferring your tax residence to Greece
- Transfer your tax residence from an EU Member State, an EEA country, or a country with which an administrative cooperation agreement in the field of taxation with Greece is in force
- Provide services in Greece under an employment relationship with a Greek legal entity, or with a permanent establishment of a foreign company in Greece, including Law 89/1967 offices
- Declare that you will remain in Greece for at least two years
Someone earning income from both salaried employment and business activity in Greece may be covered for both, provided the conditions are met for each. Otherwise the income tax and solidarity contribution exemption applies only to the category that qualifies.
If your job changes, you must notify the competent authority of the change of employer and submit a fresh declaration on behalf of the new employer, in order to stay within the regime for the remainder of the seven-year period.
If you stop meeting the conditions in a tax year, you cease to be covered from that year onwards and are taxed on all Greek employment or business income under the general provisions — unless you conclude a new qualifying employment contract, or start individual business activity, within twelve months, and inform the tax office.
If you withdraw from the regime, you can re-apply at any point within the seven-year window. If you remained a Greek tax resident throughout, the conditions on previous tax residence are not re-examined; if you became a foreign tax resident in the meantime, all conditions are reconsidered. Either way, inclusion runs only for the years remaining of the original seven.
Greek-language page: /arthro-5g-epanapatrismos/ (in Greek).
Coming to Greece for the first time
We support you step by step:
- Apply for a Greek Tax Identification Number (AFM) on your behalf
- Request your credentials (klidarithmos) for the government online services
- Apply for an AMKA (social security number)
- Submit the application for inclusion in Article 5B or Article 5C, where you qualify
Healthcare cover when you move
Moving country is exciting; working out what happens to your health cover is less so. If you are moving within the EU (including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland or the United Kingdom), you can relocate without losing coverage.
Before you leave, obtain an S1 form from your home country's health insurance institution. It is a certificate issued by your home social security system confirming your contributions, and it gives you and your family access to healthcare while living abroad. It is particularly valuable for pensioners and expatriates settling in another European country.
Check the specific requirements and procedures in your destination country before you travel, so that you make full use of your S1 rights.
In Greece, applying for a tax number (AFM) and an AMKA are the first two steps. If you want help through that process, get in touch — our office specialises in supporting people moving to Greece, and we would rather you arrived with the paperwork already in hand.
Filing your Greek tax return
If you have Greek-source income — rent from a property, business activity, or a Greek pension — you will have an annual filing obligation, whether or not you live in Greece. The forms are E1, E2 and E3, and we file them for individuals and businesses.
Full detail: Expert Greek Tax Returns – E1, E2, E3.
Setting up a business in Greece
If your move involves working for yourself, employing people, or bringing an existing company into Greece, that is covered on our Doing Business in Greece page — legal forms, registration, VAT, payroll and ongoing compliance.
Services we provide on the corporate side for international clients include establishing a corporate structure, handling tax registrations such as VAT, bookkeeping, annual financial statements, tax returns, financial reporting obligations, and acting as an outsourced Data Protection Officer (DPO).
How we work
We start with a free 15-minute discovery call — you describe the situation, we tell you what is involved and what it would cost. No obligation, no charge for that conversation.
There is no online booking. Call or email and we will arrange a time with the right person on the team.
Talk to us
Phone: +30 210 8239877 — the quickest way to reach us.
WhatsApp / Viber: +30 690 7788191
Email: info@logistismou.gr
Our office is at Sepolion 44, 104 45 Athens (Attiki Square metro). Contact details and directions: /epikoinonia/ (in Greek).
Related: Doing Business in Greece · Expert Greek Tax Returns – E1, E2, E3