FIP Visa Tax Rate

The 7% rate refers to the so called 5b program

1. if you move your tax residency to greece permanently
2. if you can prove you have a pension income

the process is not so difficult and will take about 3mths and cost something like €5,000 euros

i am not a specialist but do know I am talking about :-)

in greece always get a good/trusted

1. accountant
2. lawyer
3. notary
4. local who is knowledgeable and educated

and yes in that order of preference :-)

3mths I meant

@Phaedrus157

Hello, and congratulations!  It sounds like you plan to use the FIP visa to become a permanent resident.  That is an immigration status, not a tax residency status, and people who have FIP visas do not all pay the same taxes.  Separate from your immigration status (permanent resident, citizen, tourist), you have your tax residency. If you stay over a certain number of days, you are then considered a tax resident in Greece.  You can enjoy living here after that time if you have the requisite immigration status, but you must pay taxes because you are using Greek services, roads, infrastructure, etc. They usually quote 183 days, but you must check with an attorney because I am not an expert.  As a tax resident, you are roughly subject to the regime you quote.  However, there is a special piece of legislation that provides a special tax advantage to foreigners who choose to come live in Greece as permanent residents and also are living on pensions.  That is the 7% figure you mention, and like the regular tax regime (and the US tax regime), it is complex and you have to determine if you are eligible, but if so, you pay only 7% of your worldwide income to Greece.  If you are a US citizen, you must also file US taxes and likely pay them the rest of your tax burden minus the 7%.               The amount you are taxed as a permanent resident in Greece and whether you are eligible for the 7% tax regime are all complex matters that you will have to chip away at over time.  However, they are all very separate things legally and even in terms of taxes, and people have all sorts of combinations of immigration status, tax status, and eligibility for certain special regime programs, so there is not one rule anyone can quote to you. You have to move here and slowly over time chip away at it.  If you ask, you will find most expats from the US who are permanent residents, as well as tax residents, end up saving money living here in the long run regardless of the combination of all of this.  You also did not mention eligibility for private health care insurance, which may actually be more of a problem than all of these things.  If so, you get what you can, and know that even paying everything out of pocket in Greece is dramatically less expensive than having insurance and paying copays and other costs in the US.

Thank you so very much for the detailed information. We are making a trip to Athens to personally visit the Tax Office to try and unravel the complexities of the 5B legal tax status and to try an ensure that we do qualify before contracting with an account and lawyer. We have already had meetings with an accountant and a lawyer here in Greece but they wanted to require use to sign a POA, get a tax ID, and to sign contracts with them before they would offer any information. That was unacceptable to us since we would like to know a priori whether or not we would qualify for 5B tax status. It seems strange to me that no one seems to have or to know what the criteria actually are. We would like to move forward but don't want to start a lengthy process to obtain the D Visa then move on to an even more rigorous process of the FIP Visa unless we can verify whether or not we do qualify for the flat 7% rate.

We don't have any issues with paying tax, as you said, we would be residents although not citizens under the FIP Visa. But we do have to plan ahead and we don't start a process that will increase our tax burden without knowing what we are getting into.

Thanks again,

Phaedrus

@PhilIpZ20201

Dear Philip, I'm new to the forum and does not look like I thanked you for your information. That is the information that we also have and we are making a visit to Athens to personally visit the Tax Office to try and determine whether or not we qualify for the 5B tax status under a FIP Visa. We believe that we do but we visited a lawyer and an account here in Greece and they wanted us to sign a contract, get a Tax ID, and provide a POA without even providing an answer as to whether we qualify for the 5B. That strikes me as strange that no one seems to actually know what all the criteria are. We have been told that it is "a complex set of factors" and I don't even know what that means. I'll share what we learn from the tax office.

Thank you for your reply!

Phaedrus

I used a tax specialist in Thesaaloniki that I trusted and they delivered - pls get in touch if you want more to share their details - good luck ?

Thank you so much, we may take you up on it in the future. Right now, it is on hold as we have to leave due to Schengen Area rule of 90 days but will be back to take up the torch when we return.

Phaedrus