Capital gains tax

The new objective values (property rates used for tax purposes) to be announced in mid-June will only be the starter for property owners, as it is expected that the main course will be particularly hard to digest when it comes in 2019.

Just days before it was set to expire at the end of 2017, the suspension period of the application of the provisions regarding the capital gains tax during the transfer of ownership rights of real estate was extended to end-2018.

The updated bailout agreement between Greece and the country's creditors, reached on December 2, provides for the imposition of the supplementary property tax on plots of agricultural land too, unless rates on urban properties are hiked, with the aim of reaching the target of 2.65 billion euros in revenues from property taxation after the adjustment of the so-called "objective values" used for

Tax office is calling property owners in Greece. 6.3 million owners will have to pay in total 3.153 billion euros in property tax (ENFIA 2017) for the time between September 2017 and January 2018.

The declarations for the so-called Unified Property Tax (ENFIA) were uploaded on taxisnet on Sunday evening, a week earlier than originally scheduled.

More than 62,000 Greeks have paid some 250 million euros in taxes as part of a so-called voluntary scheme to declare taxable income and wealth that was previously hidden.

The introduction of the capital gains tax in property sales is to be postponed for another year, as the Finance Ministry is preparing an amendment that will likely extend its suspension from end-2016 to end-2017.

The tax, voted into law in 2013, ran into a series of problems and has been repeatedly suspended.

Taxpayers will have to declare income from abroad, holdings in foreign companies and property assets and capital in other countries in the online asset register ("Periousiologio") that the General Secretariat for Public Revenue will introduce in 2017, which will also include all taxpayer data stored by the tax authorities.

A cloud of confusion continues to hover over what changes the public can expect next in property taxation. Government sources are now saying the capital gains tax will not be reintroduced in 2017 after all, while the plan to start calculating the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) based on value rather than size will also be shelved for now.

Banks are accelerating the procedures for the sale of properties that come into their ownership from debtors, as the administrative costs are on the rise.

The Finance Ministry is planning to allow the concession of properties to the state for the payment of inheritance tax - unless this tax exceeds the objective value of the property - and other obligations to the state, while it appears the government will have to postpone the return of the capital gains tax on properties for another year.