Discussions

I heard today that Cyprus may be considering exiting the Euro. Would that have any knock-on implications for us here in Greece?

Hi, I wonder if someone would be able to help me please. I am a UK citizen and my wife is Latin American and we are hoping to start planning to move to one of the Greek Islands, most likely Santorini or Corfu. I have been contacting the Greek Embassy here and the UK Embassy in Greece but have not been getting any answers or replies and its been a long time I've been trying to contact them. I need to know financially what is required of us to gain residency there e.g. £24,000 in our bank account? more or less? I am aware we will need to speak Greek but do they require its fluent or basic Greek? And anything else that anyone thinks we need to know. I have read the page on here abuot it so its just what I have wrote above that I really need to know. Thank you all for your time and attention, Kind regards, George Panayi

Can anyone advise me? I am a UK citizen, and my partner is Italian. We live in Greece. We are going to have a baby this September. hat nationality will he or she have at birth? Will it be Greek automatically or do we decide?

Retired couple planning to live (not work) in norhtern Greece.  Is residency permit required? Do we need one to purchase a home? Buy, insure and register a car? How can we obtain one?  

We are currently buying a small house on Corfu (not athens I know!), and our lawyer has given us the final costs. She gave us these on friday night, one week before the deal is set to be rubber stamped. The estate agent had told us that the costs would be between 11-15% of the purchase price. This is the information our lawer has sent us. The house price is 60 000 euro. Tax                        6000 euro. Notary fee              2000 euro Lawyer's fee           2000 euro Estate agent fee     1200 euro + vat We had been advised that we would be paying tax based on the assessed value rather than the purchase price, but the lawer now tells us we must pay based on the purchase price. http://athens.angloinfo.com/information/housing/buying-property/property-taxes  This link confirms that this is appropriate, but I still don't see how it comes to 6k? We had been advised the notary fee would be 1-2% but 2k is around 3.3% The lawyer told us her fee was 2% but now says the cost is 2k euro as there is a 520 euro payment to the greek legal society and vat of 23%. There have been no surprises regarding the estate agent fee. Overall the additional costs come to 19.3% rather than the 11-15% we were advised we would pay. I have asked the lawyer to explain the taxes and the notary fee further.  I'm getting the feeling I am being ripped off and we are now in the position where we need to hope the £ holds it's position against the euro this week, or we won't have enough cash to go through with the deal. Has anybody else experienced additional costs at 19+%? Do these seem excessive?

Can anybody help me to understand better the tax situation for foreigners in GreeceIt is a broad question but it would be perhaps a good idea to start a specific forum on questions members have

Hello there Does anybody know the rules with regards to excemptions to paying property tax. I moved to Greece last year . I am 60 years of age,I do not work and do not intend to work, and have no salary. I do not claim any benefits and never have. I have my own property and pay all due Greek taxes. Do I qualify for an excemption Thank you

Hi, Can anyone tell me if a will made in the UK is legal here? For a permanent resident of Greece. I have heard that wills are a lot more expensive to get made here than in the UK. Can anyone recommend a good place to get a will made and how much they will charge. Thanks/ Sian.

Hi all I need to make a fairly large payment for a second mobile home from a dealer next time I'm in Athens (I havnt found one yet, I want to look around) and wondered what payment options people generally accept. I know that cash is king but I dont really want to be wandering round with a few thousand Euro's in my pocket if I can help it. I was going to open a bank account in Greece and then request a cheque book and pay using that but (having read the banking advice page on here) I saw that personal cheques are hardly ever used in Greece. What do other people do in these sorts of situations - arrange a bank transfer or what? Cheers

Hi All I need to find a good English speaking accountant (to file my yearly tax return there) if anyone has any recomendations please. By good I mean thorough and not too expensive of course Thanks

Can anyone recommend a good divorce lawyer?

Hi I am new to Athens and I need to open a bank account here. Any banks that are better than the others? Any advice re the procedure would be very welcome. Thanks so much/ V

Does anyone know exactly what has changed? I heard there is a new rule/law. thanks

Hello, Does anyone know how much Greek banks charge for a transfer within the European Union? Thanks!

Could someone please recommend us a bank? Which documents do we need to open an account over here? Many thanks, Julia & Dave

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