Work from home with 50% of your income tax free – by moving to Greece: Country offers huge breaks to entice workers during the pandemic
- Greek finance minister wants ‘digital immigrants’ to boost the flailing economy
- Tax break available in 2021 on income earned for up to seven years under plan
- Covid-19 has exacerbated cracks in Greek economy caused by emigration
- PM’s chief economist said ‘we can now offer tax incentives as well as the sun’
Greece is offering huge tax breaks of up to 50% on a personal income to entice ‘digital immigrants’ as millions of people work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
‘Technology means we can now choose where we live and work,’ the prime minister’s chief economist Alex Patelis said on Wednesday.
‘A worker from abroad who moves to Greece will be eligible for a 50% exemption on income earned here for seven years under the plan,’ he said, adding that legislation will be brought to parliament by the end of the year.
Patelis told Bloomberg we ‘can now offer tax incentives as well as the sun,’ as the country hopes to create jobs and reverse the economic damage caused by emigration.
A stunning beach on Corfu. Prime minister’s chief economist Alex Patelis said: ‘Technology means we can now choose where we live and work’
Italy, another of the Eurozone’s battered economies, introduced a similar scheme in May last year which increased the tax exemption from 50% to 70% for newly resident workers.
Greece’s scheme will be available only during 2021 and to people who have not been Greek tax residents within the last seven years.
Patelis, who advises Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on finance, said the aim was to create jobs, either through an individual moving to Greece or a company relocating a worker to the country.
‘The main criterion for eligibility for the tax incentive is tax residence,’ Patelis said.
There will be no restrictions on levels of income or types of work, although the government hopes to attract professionals and to lure back some of the estimated 800,000 Greeks who left during the years-long debt crisis to pursue careers abroad.
‘An extra push is needed to see them return,’ Patelis said.
Millions of people around the world have been working from home since the pandemic struck in the spring (stock image)
‘The coronavirus pandemic has also shown that it is possible in many cases for one to choose where to live and work thanks to technology. We can have digital migrants.’
Athens also sees a potential ‘Brexit bonus’ from offering a tax incentive for people who want to leave the United Kingdom following its departure from the European Union to move their jobs to Greece.
‘We just want to get a share of that pie,’ Patelis said.