Impact on business & FDI
Activity in addition to the already announced reductions of the CIT rate (down to 24%) and dividend withholding tax rate (down to 5%), business friendly tax initiatives include participation exemption for capital gains, streamlined tax treatment of bad debts, significantly rationalized scope of BoD liabilities, revised Statute of Limitation up to 10 years, instead of 20. Very welcomed tax incentives to encourage Corporate Social Responsibility, including a focus towards sustainability [eco-friendly corporate vehicles].
HNWIs
Resident non-dom regime introduced for HNWIs relocating to Greece is less competitive from Portuguese and Italian regimes. It is as if the targeted crowd is Greek nationals with substantial wealth who have left Greece and are considering returning. Furthermore, instead of introducing an automated mechanism to qualify under such new regime, applicants have to interact with (i.e. request approval from) the Greek tax authorities, whatever that means. Last but not least, unlike the Portuguese and Italian regimes, the new package leaves out retirees (too bad for Greece) and executives. We believe that we can do better than that.
Real Estate
Improved provisions on the exemption from Special Real Estate Tax still don’t resolve the uncertainties for listed real estate investors with shares traded in multilateral trading facilities.