Process agent
The Greek tax system not only haunts Greek citizens, but also Greeks living abroad. Those who are “lucky” enough to earn a meager income in Greece will be economically burdened.
This burden is due to the small print of Greek legislation concerning the personal income tax. What about it? It states that anyone earning an income in Greece and filing tax returns in Greek tax offices, including citizens of other countries, must state an authorized process agent in Greece. That obligation has been established so that the tax offices can reach a representative of the taxpayer in case something comes up, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Thousands of Greeks live abroad for decades, for instance in Germany, Australia, and the USA, but earn an income above 3,000 Euros in Greece, usually in the form of pensions if they worked many years in Greece before migrating.
Many of them no longer have relatives or any ties to Greece anymore, so in order to comply with these new tax regulations they are forced to hire someone (and of course pay him) to simply register his name in their tax return forms where the name of a process agent is lately required. This obligatory procedure causes increasing discomfort among the taxpayers living outside Greece who happen to receive a meager pension or the rent from an apartment they’ve inherited.
Most of them are now filing their tax returns online and state the address of their permanent residence in the country they live in, so that the Greek tax office can submit a request or a query. Stating a process agent used to be a rational obligation in the past, when modern means of communication and online services weren’t yet available. Besides, that regulation was established in the early twentieth century, in the 1910s, and is thus outdated.
Presumed minimum income
Greek citizens that have permanent jobs (and residences) abroad will be exempted from the presumed minimum income established for all Greek taxpayers in a 2010 tax law, the Finance Ministry also announced. The law has been amended with legislation attached to law 3943 passed in 2011. The change was made following letters of protest sent to the ministry by Greeks employed in Germany, who were asked to pay additional tax for a ‘presumed income’ by the taxation office for Greeks abroad, in addition to the income tax they had paid in Germany.
Under the 2010 law, a single taxpayer is assumed to have a minimum annual income of at least 3,000 Euros, while that for a couple has been set at 5,000 Euros. On this basis, Greeks living in Germany that had property in Greece or received rent from a property were required to pay tax on this minimum presumed income.
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