The payment of the transfer tax is mandatory during the purchase of the immovable property in Greece, the property is taxed in two ways:
3.09% (instead of 10% as before January 1, 2014) for the newly built properties with the construction permit issued before January 1, 2006, and the secondary housing properties irrespective of the date of issue of the construction permit. 24% in case if a construction permit was issued after the above mentioned date.
After the purchase of the property the owner should also pay annually the unified property tax (On the 1st of January 2014, the Greek Parliament passed a new unified property tax law (ΕΝ.Φ.Ι.Α). The new tax replaces the “emergency property tax” imposed in 2011 which was collected through the Electric company utility bill (ΔΕΗ). The new tax applies to individuals as well as to entities, including the land and farm plots. In the case of co-ownership, the payment will correspond to the percentage of the ownership of the property. The rate of property tax can be calculated on the web site of the tax authority using the personal pass code.
The following proprietary rights are subject to the new tax:
Personal property
Common property
Joint shared property
Freehold (acquired rights of long –term use of the residential property) etc.
Furthermore, the tax is imposed on such categories as the parking in the buildings, covered parking areas, additional premises and swimming pools.
It should be mentioned that, the property vendors will be paying the so called tax on fictitious profit that can arise during the process of property sale. As such profit could be considered possible disproportionate difference between the fair assessed value and the actual commercial value specified in the contract of sale, which is usually considerably overvalued. The tax rate for this kind of profit is 15% and is imposed in the case of “secondary real estate”. At the same time there is a possibility of allowance subject to the age of the property.
The unified property tax comprises main tax and supplementary tax. The main tax applies for buildings, plots, fields and so on. The main tax is calculated on the basis of the location of the property, size, use, age of the property, the floor on which the property is located and the number of open property sides. The supplementary tax (so called sumptuary tax) is imposed on the property with the assessed value which exceeds €30000 for one owner and 600000€ for shared ownership. The tax rate ranges from 0.1 to 1% from the assessed value.
