Just a few months before the summer tourist season begins, the tax bureau has begun scouring short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, so that the income can be taxed for the first time.
Those who do not declare the rentals and the resulting income will be subject to stiff fines of up to 5,000 euros.
The eight-year economic crisis has fueled the rapid growth of such rentals, which offer a much-needed boost in income for thousands of families around the country.
The finance ministry aims to have the electronic platform, on which property owners must register their rental properties, up and running by the end of the month. It will be mandatory to register all rental contracts signed after 1 January, 2018.
In Athens, the short-term rentals trend began in the still popular neighbourhoods of Koukaki, Metaxourgeio, Ilisia, and Mets, but it quickly spread into the provinces and to tourist resorts around the country.
In Athens alone, there has been exponential growth of such rentals, which have increased from about 2,500 hundred a year ago to over 6,500 today.
The steps for registration
Managers of rental properties will have to follow a procedure that involves seven steps:
Signing up with details of the owner and property on the electronic, short-term rental registry (where they will receive a registration number, using their existing codes for accessing the tax bureau computer system), at the web address www.aade.gr;
For each renter a statement of short-term rental must be filed with the registration number, the name of the intermediary rental company, personal details of the lessee and the dates of arrival and departure;
Apartments, houses, and rooms within them that may be rented separately must all be registered;
Α public deposit at the Deposits and Loans Fund for unknown beneficiaries entitled to income from the property, of whom the administrator may not have been aware;
Τhe owner, the lessee, those who are by legal agreement entitled to use of the property without owning it;
Αcquire a separate registration number for each room rented separately in the same house
The graduated tax brackets for the rentals range from 15-45 percent:
15 percent for annual rental income of up to 12,000 euros
35 percent between, 12,001 and 35,000 euros
45 percent for over 35,000 euros
