Greece is quickly evolving into a remote work destination with authorities taking actions to facilitate the move of digital nomads, according to the conclusions of the 1st Work from Greece Summit organized by Marketing Greece on Tuesday.
Government officials, company executives and digital nomads attended the event and exchanged ideas on ways to develop the country into a remote work destination as well as on the added value it will provide the Greek tourism sector.
Opening the event, Marketing Greece CEO Ioanna Dretta referred to the workfromgreece.gr site which aims to answer all questions regarding remote work options in Greece and offer guidance.
In efforts to simplify procedures, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis announced that individuals will be able to soon establish self-owned business (sole proprietorship) through Gov.gr whose services are currently being translated into English.
As part of government efforts to simplify procedures and attract more remote workers, Deputy Foreign Minister Militiadis Varvitsiotis noted that Greece was one of the first countries to regulate remote work. He referred to ministry initiatives, including the creation a special visa for digital nomads.
Earlier this year, a survey found that Greece still had a long way to go before being able to provide the work environment needed for remote employment. Slow internet, poor connectivity and lagging social and economic conditions placed Greece 32nd on a list of 66 countries on the Global Remote Work Index released by NordLayer.
Last year, the 1st Digital Mobilities Conference organized by the Digital Nomads Observatory also found that Greece was behind in terms of remote work environment but found that Athens was gaining ground as a digital nomad destination.
full story: greektravelpages.gr
the obtuse, excessive, arbitrary, and abusive tax regime is probably the number one reason anyone who can do work like this.. will choose to do it from somewhere else!
The notion of doing work on the laptop at a Greek Island farmhouse in the mornings and swimming in the crystal sea in the afternoons starts to pale when one realises that internet speeds have not improved in most rural areas for the last decade.
On top of slow internet and poor connectivity for one of the highest price in Europe you can put in number one problem the tax authority practices refer more to a banana republic than a developped country !!! They allowed themself to go back feww years backin your tax history, change their interpretation of the fiscal law to ask you to pay ridiculously amount of money you couldn’t pay even after reaching your retirement age. This country really need to look at their obtus and arbitrary tax practices before anything else if they want to go forward. Even the tax accountants don’t know exactly what to do and how to do it for their client…. it’s just ridiculous.Digital nomads would never come here knowing these conditions unless they are totaly daft !