Transfer tax

A draft bill ending stamp duty in more than 600 transactions is now at the public consultation stage.

Stamp duty is a very old fee system imposed in favor of entities such as state agencies and pension funds. One doesn't have to deal directly with the beneficiaries to have a stamp duty imposed.

A draft law that abolishes the Stamp Duty on more than 600 transactions and introduces a Digital Transaction Fee for transactions where the related charge remains, explicitly defined in the law, has been put up for public consultation until Thursday, August 22, 2024, at 11:00 PM.

The main changes include the following:

An Economy and Finance Ministry bill provides for the abolition of stamp duty on some 600 types of transactions and its replacement by the the online transaction fee for 29 transactions. The abolition of the stamp duty will benefit citizens by 32 million euros per year, from the €386 million the state collects in this way.

The Bank of Greece proposes simplification of the tax legislation and the tax system, digitization of procedures and payments, but also closer cooperation of the tax authorities of the EU member states for the detection of fraud in cross-border transactions, in order to reduce tax evasion on the VAT front.

Purchasing a house or apartment in Greece that was built in the last 12 years is forbidden fruit for the majority of foreign buyers or for locals who have already bought their main residence. The reason is not so much the cost of the property - as prices have dropped 40-50 percent since 2008 - but rather the tax load, concerning the 24 percent value-added tax that has to be paid.