You know, you live in Greece of strict austerity and surreal tax collection, when you can’t get a tax clearance even if your debt is just 0.37 euro.
A pensioner in Veroia (Northern Greece) needed two days in the local tax office to meet his debt obligation and get the much wanted ‘tax clearance’.
On the first day he waited at a long queue, but then the electronic system collapsed and so he returned home still owing to the tax office, the finance Ministry, the state and the country’s lenders full 37 cents.
On the second day he visited the tax office, waited patiently in long queue… However Fortuna had an eye on him: the man managed to pay his debt and receive the tax clearance.
It is still unclear whether the man had at hand 2x 20 cents, 1 x10 cents, 1 x5 cents and 1 x2 cents or he had a 50-cent coin and the tax office had difficulties to give him the change.
However it is clear from the tax notice that the debt would receive 1% fine each month of the payment delay.
Paid Tax certifications issued by foreign countries
Occasionally I receive in my inbox e-mails sent by UK citizens, complaining that the Greek tax Office does not recognizes the UK-paid tax certifications and it wants that they’re all translated in Greek and certified as valid with various stamps etc.
Do also other expats living in Greece have the same problem?
Hi, with reference to your question above…
We live over half of each year in the UK so are ordinarily resident in the UK for tax purposes. We have no income in Crete but do have a house and car, so need to file a Greek tax return via an accountant. We get a letter from the UK tax office that declares we pay tax in the UK. This year we also had to get an Apostille, a form of ‘stamp that proves the UK tax letter is genuine. We obtained and paid for the Apostille via a website. It’s a nuisance and additional expense, but it’s our choice to live in Crete so we have to abide by the rules. X
thank you, Kritsa. I think that was the answer to my (their) question!
Yes Krista, we have some Swiss friends in your position and they had to do the same but we have been asked for much more complicated documents that the UK tax authorities do not provide since the authorities refuse to accept the ones they do. A declaration that we pay tax in the UK would, as you say, be no more than an inconvenience but until we can sort this out to the satisfaction of the Greek tax authorities we cannot undertake any major transaction since we do not have a “clean” document. A bit more than an inconvenience.