ENFIA lands a blow to business
Two out of three enterprises in Greece along with some 270,000 other property owners are being asked to pay the lion’s share of the revamped Single Property Tax (ENFIA) this year, according to data released on Monday by the General Secretariat for Public Revenue.
The above have been asked to pay a property tax increase that in many cases is 1,000 euros more than last year, with companies being forced to shoulder a higher tax due to the increase in the rates of the supplementary tax and the abolition of the exemption from the latter of properties used as main residences. In total 35.5 percent of property owners found out on Monday, when tax notices went online, that this year they will have to pay more for their assets.
The tax imposed on 6.4 million property owners amounts to 3.18 billion euros in 2016. Figures show that the exemptions owners and enterprises enjoyed last year, amounting to 426 million euros, dropped to just 88 million. This is due to the end of the exemption for empty properties without power supply and to the drop in the tax-free threshold for the supplementary tax from 300,000 to 200,000 euros.
Among property owners, 38.5 percent will pay less tax than in 2015, 26 percent will pay the same, 25 percent will pay up to 10 euros more each and over 10 percent will pay between 10 and 1,000 euros more. There are also 10,133 owners who will have to pay over 1,000 euros more than in 2015.
Enterprises are in for quite a blow as almost a third (32.53 percent) will pay an extra 50 to 1,000 euros, and 6,888 businesses (or 12.98 percent) will have to pay over 1,000 euros more this year.
The first installment for ENFIA is due by September 30, followed by up to four more installments, one each month, up to end-January 2017. All the details are accessible via keyword on Taxisnet at www.gsis.gr. The tax can be paid online, at banks and post offices using the so-called debt identification number.
