Greece · Retirement
Alternative Taxation for Foreign Pensioners (Article 5B, Law 4172/2013)
A flat 7% tax on all foreign-source income, not just pension income, for up to 15 tax years. This applies to foreign pension recipients who transfer their tax residence to Greece.
This is structurally the most generous of the three Greek regimes, and the most overlooked. The 7% rate applies to all foreign income, including dividends, interest, rents and capital gains, not just the pension that qualifies you in the first place. A retired principal with a modest foreign pension and a large portfolio pays 7% on all of it, with no EUR 500,000 investment and no lump sum required. Below roughly EUR 1.4m of foreign income, it beats the EUR 100,000 Article 5A regime outright.
Qualifying routes
There is no investment requirement. That is the key structural advantage over Article 5A.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- 7% of all foreign-source income annually, paid in a single instalment by the end of July. There is no investment requirement, no lump sum and no entry fee.
- Route type
- Pension requirement
- Timeline
- 2–6 months (Apply to the tax authority by 31 March of the relevant year.)
- Physical presence
- Greek tax residence is required.
- Family
- A spouse and dependants may transfer along with the applicant. Each person's eligibility is assessed on its own
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable. This is a tax regime, not a residency route.
- Citizenship
- Not applicable
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Recipient of a foreign pensionNot a Greek tax resident for at least 5 of the 6 years preceding the transferTransfer of tax residence from a state that has an administrative cooperation agreement in tax matters with GreeceApplication by 31 March. Tax settled in one payment by end of July.
- You need a genuine foreign pension to qualify. The regime is gated on receiving that pension, even though the 7% rate then applies to everything.
- You must have been a non-resident of Greece for five of the last six years.
- Your prior state must have an administrative cooperation agreement in tax matters in force with Greece. This excludes some origin countries entirely.
- Greek-source income is taxed normally, at up to 44%, and must be declared.
- 7% is a rate, not a cap. Unlike Article 5A, there is no ceiling. Above roughly EUR 1.4m of foreign income, the EUR 100,000 flat tax becomes cheaper. Model both.
- As with 5A, the foreign tax credit interaction is the main source of leakage, and treaty access can be questioned.
- There is a 15-year limit. After that, the ordinary 44% scale applies.