Greece Global Payroll & Tax Information Guide

August 8, 2022 | 5 Mins Yana Todorova

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Payroll in Greece – 2022 Updates

- Minimum wages have been revised for general workers from €29.62 to €31.85 per day (€663.00 to €713.00 per month).
- Suspension of special social solidarity tax extended through 2022.
- 3% point cut in social security contributions extended through 2022.
- Permanent reduction in corporate income tax to 22% from 24%.
- Reduced VAT on transport services, coffee and non-alcoholic beverages, cinemas, tourist packages extended to June 2022.
- Reduced VAT on gyms, dance schools extended to June 2022.
- Suspension of duties on pay – TV services extended to June 2022.
- Taxes on intra-family transfers of up to €800,000 abolished.
- Duties on mobile phone services reduced to 10 from 12-20% currently; abolished for youth below 29 years of age from 1 January 2022.
- Permanent reduction of VAT on animal feed to 6% from 13%.
- Reduction in ENFIA property tax starting in 2022.

Greece Payroll – Basic Facts

The official currency in Greece is the Euro (EUR).

The accounting year ends on 31^st of December or 30^th of June.

Employers are required to operate under a pay-as-you-earn scheme (PAYE), according to which withholding tax is imposed on employees’ salary payments.

Wages must be paid regularly, either fortnightly or monthly. Employers are required to main employee payslips for at least previous 3 months.

Income Tax

In Greece, all taxes on income earned are progressive. The individual income tax rate ranges between 9% and 44%.

Taxable income	Tax rate
€0 – €10,000	9%
€10,001 – €20,000	22%
€20,001 – €30,000	28%
€30,001 – €40,000	36%
€40,001 +	44%

Social Security Tax

• For employer – approx. 24.81% of the salary.
• For employee – approx. 15.75%

Capital Gains Tax

• For individuals, from a sold real estate property – 15%
• For companies - adds to regular income and is taxable at the same rate as a regular income.

Corporate Tax

The corporate income tax rate is 22% for income earned in tax year 2021.

Branch Tax Rate

The branch tax rate currently is 22%.

Withholding Tax

- Dividends: 5%
- Interest: 15%
- Royalties: 20%

Value Added Tax

The standard VAT rate in Greece is 24%.

Compensation and Benefits

Minimum Wage

Since May 2022 the new gross monthly minimum wage is €713.00 for employees and the minimum daily wage is €31.85 for manual workers.

Overtime

In Greece, the overtime hours more than 40 hours a week and one additional hour per working day are paid at 120% of the employee's basic salary rate for daytime hours and 125% of the employee's basic salary for night-time work.

Hours of Work

In Greece, the full-time employment is 8 hours a day, or 40 hours a week.

Holidays

Every Sunday of the year is a public holiday according to the Greek law. In addition, there are six obligatory, official public holidays: New Year's Day, 25th of March, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, 15th of August and 25th of December.

Leaves

• Annual leave - Full-time employees get 20 days of annual leave a year. This extends to 21 days after 1 year of employment and 22 days after 2 years of employment. Long-serving employees can get to up to 26 days a year.

• Sick days - In an employee’s first year in employment, the employer must pay sick leave for up to 13 days. From the employee’s second year onward, this extends to 25 days.

• Maternity and paternity leave – There are 119 calendar days of maternity leave, of which mothers take 56 days before birth and 63 days after birth. Fathers get 2 days of paid leave following birth.

• Marriage leave - Employees are entitled to 5 days’ marriage leave.

• Other leave - Employees in Greece are entitled to 2 days’ bereavement leave. They also get 3 working days’ leave for voting in elections.

Foreign workers in Greece

Visa Requirements

Non-EU and non-EEA nationals must apply for a work visa and work permit to legally work in the country. A Greek D Visa or Greek National Visa authorizes a person to enter Greece and remain for more than 3 months – it also allows a person to engage in most paid activities.

Taxes

Non-residents are subject to pay taxes only on their individual income in Greece. And they are married, they will be taxed separately.

For more information about how our Global Payroll Control Platform integrates with local payroll providers in Greece, contact us today.

Using Payslip, we can manage all our payrolls across nine in-country vendors on one platform. When the global Covid-19 pandemic arose, it was not an issue from a payroll perspective, and critically getting everyone paid. The Payslip platform enabled continuity for our international payroll service including the fast and seamless implementation of the Payslip Employment Self Service during this time.

Colin Smith Payroll Manager, GoTo

Payslip as a technology platform has added a missing piece in our payroll set-up. As an international company with offices in 16 countries, it’s important to us that every employee at GetYourGuide has the same great experience when accessing their pay data.

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Julian Fichter Head of HR, GetYourGuide

With business and employee growth rates of above 50%, we rely on our vendors to deliver on time, every time. Payslip’s workflow automation, enables Phorest to manage our payroll provider process – data driven, real time and transparent. Payslip saves us time so we can focus on our business growth.

Ana Kelly International Payroll Manager, Phorest

Payslip positions your team for success, and allows you to onboard hundreds of people when you need them very quickly and efficiently, in the same way for each country. The uniformed approach empowered our payroll teams to keep pace with our business.

Payslip also made our payroll process entirely transparent, which is invaluable to our payroll teams as we continue to grow and scale at such a rapid pace.

Travis Saville HR Systems Lead, Wave

Payslip is firmly bedded into Kirby's now, and we've seen massive efficiencies in the way we are processing our payrolls across Europe. We hope to bed in Italy & Switzerland now in Q2 so onwards & upwards!