Proverbial modern Greek bureaucracy and a cash-strapped state have squarely set their sights on the “AirBnB” phenomenon rapidly expanding in tourism-dependent country, with the relevant head of an independent public revenues authority on Friday announcing a small “laundry list” of obligations for would-be leasers.
Based on the decision, the “manager” of a property, which is liberally defined, is obligated to proceed with no less than four steps, namely:
– Registration in an online register for short-term stay rental properties
– Submission of a statement listing each short-term stay, per leasee
– Submitting particulars of each owner and co-owners of a leased property in order for the tax bureau to add whatever revenue from the property’s commercial exploitation to each taxpayer’s annual taxable revenue, i.e. a property owner in Greece’s top income bracket will see roughly 450 euros out of 1,000 euros in revenue from an AirBnB leasing taken by the state.
Lastly, and strangely, even by Greek bureaucratic standards, a property “manager” must:
– Deposit, in the Consignment Deposit And Loans Fund, the corresponding sum from each lease to “unknown beneficiaries that the manager was not in a position to know during the registration of the property in the register…”
The definition of “manager” includes the outright owner, long-term leasee, a trustee, a trust liquidator, a will’s executor, a bankruptcy administrator, temporary administrator, a sequestrator, court-appointed guardian or custodian.
Various stiff fines are foreseen for violations.
