Awash

Earlier this week I learned the most astonishing fact – that a man who lived from 1790 until 1862 has two surviving grandsons today, in January 2018

Here are some things I already knew; In Greece we are charged property tax for every square metre of building we own; in addition, we are charged Council tax for every square metre of domestic building we own unless those buildings are out-of-town (rural) in which case their area is doubled for the purposes of tax calculation. Council tax is included on your electricity bill as is your TV license fee regardless of whether or not you actually have a TV. Obviously there is also income tax and National Insurance, both of which are based upon your personal profit, though in the case of National Insurance, not necessarily for the previous year, it could be based on your most profitable year even if you are now making a loss. There has been luxury tax for things like swimming pools and second cars and I am not sure if those still exist or if they are not charged when those luxuries form an essential part of your business. And obviously, there is also VAT.

So far so good.

And then I learned another thing. There is a 5% tax for fixed line telephony. Not only that, but there is a fixed “additional charge” on top of your line rental so even if your telephone line was non-functional for 65 days out of a 60-day line rental period, there is still the “additional charge” to be paid as well as the 5% tax on that.

And then guess what

You never will

There's 24% VAT on top of the additional charge+5% phone tax
Yes! Greece taxes your tax!