Dear visitors of Greece. please, do not be surprised if you pay for the same cup of coffee two different prices. Nobody tries to cheat you. It’s just the Greek government that increased the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 24% as of July 1, 2024, for coffee and other beverages when served and consumed in the cafeteria, restaurant, bar or taverna.
The VAT remains 13% for take away or delivery.
Next to coffee increased are also prices for non-alcoholic beverages (cocoa, tea, juices etc) for the same reason.
Indicative prices in cafes
The higher VAT in coffee combined with the big price hikes in the raw material, is expected to bring increases of up to 15% in the coffee served in cafes and coffee shops.
Under these circumstances, it is now up to each business individually to decide whether to “pass on” the VAT to 24% to the retail price (resulting in an additional increase of 0.11%) or absorb it.
According to estimates with the new 15% increase in the price of coffee:
- Freddo espresso in the cafeteria will be sold at 4 to 4.10 euros from 3.5 euros
- Freddo cappuccino will rise to 4.50 – 4.60 euros from 4 euros today
- Greek coffee that cost 2.5 euros until June 30 will be sold for at least 2.80 euros.
Representatives of the catering sector point out the risk of limiting consumption with what this entails for businesses, and ask the government not to apply the two different tiers in the VAT for coffee.
The international price of coffee has been on an upward “rally” in recent months. The figures show that prices in the Robusta coffee variety market have reached their highest levels in the last 45 years and from January 2024 to May they have increased by 50%, driving up the price of Arabica coffee.
“Those who drink two will cut one
Speaking to daily ethnos.gr, the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Restaurateurs and Related Professions as well as GSEVEE, Giorgos Kavvathas, warned that the price increase of an average 0.40 to 0.70 euros will hit especially the low incomers and small entrepreneurs, while it will benefit the multinationals.
“Think of the grandpas who go every morning and afternoon to the cafe for socialization,” Kavvathas stressed.
Coffee consumption will decrease by 50% per customer, he warned.
It should also be noted that Kavvathas expects a new increase in the price of coffee as of the upcoming autumn, which will be due to the continuous rise in the international price of coffee.
“There was a commitment by the prime minister to us that the VAT on coffee will remain at 13% even after these two years. Unfortunately, however, this commitment did not materialize,” Kavvathas underlined.
PS I don’t know what will happen if you get your coffee as take away with 13% and on the way out you see some friends enjoying their drinks at a table. You sit with them and start chatting, drinking your coffee. What will happen then? The cafe onwer or waiter will run after you demanding that you pay the VAT difference?
I recall the UK’s idiot right wing government of Cameron doing the same trick in the UK about 12 years ago — different VAT rates for the same thing, depending on whether it is take-out or eat-in. It was a total mess, just like the total mess of a Brexit referendum that the idiot created.
It seems that Mitsotakis is determined to repeat all of the worst mistakes of the UK (privatisations, running down of state services, hyperinflation and crisis of the property market (by selling off property to foreign companies and individuals, with no controls), increasing gap between rich and poor, undertaxation of the super-rich and over-taxation of the majority of residents. financial attacks on small businesses and largesse for multinationals and big business, collapse of the health services, deterioriating schools and universities through lack of state funding…. The list is endless.
It really is a mystery to me what is wrong with the brains of politicians like this; and also, why anybody votes for them. If there is no party worth voting for, then just don’t vote. That conveys a message. Of course, most countries in the same mess are protesting by voting in large proportions for the Far Right. Are Mitsotakis and his minions bright enough to understand? I doubt it.
don’t think that theyre doing this by mistake. they are not bungling, they are doing exactly what they were put there to do. Whether they’re being promised a rich reward for destroying the country and selling the carcasse off to international investors, or whether theyve been epstein’ed into doing it, or some combination, whatever the motivation is, the fact remains that theyre doing it deliberately.
My sentiments too. It seems. like me, you are an ex-pat who has lived here for a while!
‘Twas ever thus’! Where in the Western World is there a sales tax of 24% on foodstuffs?
We have the same in Germany for ages. Different VAT for take away and in house consumption. Of course the consumer price is always the same. Don’t see much problems with it. It’s against logic, but who says tax laws have to be logical?
in Greece they never raise prices by cents but always by half euros