Greece's Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis announced that the current accommodation tax imposed on hotel guests will be abolished and replaced with a climate crisis resilience fee, and that an updated draft law will be made public by 27 November.
Important changes affecting tourist accommodation and Airbnb-style rentals announced by Greek Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis include.
The existing accommodation tax will be replaced by a new climate crisis resilience fee, meaning that property owners renting out one or more properties will have to charge an extra daily fee ranging from 1.5 euros to 10 euros. The revenues from this fee, which will apply to all types of tourist accommodation from 0.5 euros to 4 euros from March to October and from November to February, will go into a specially created emergency fund for natural disasters.
However, persons renting three or more properties for short-term tourist rental purposes will have to start business activities, including keeping financial accounts and paying VAT and other taxes. Those who rent out their properties for short-term accommodation but do not register them in the register will have to pay a fine of 50 per cent of the previous year's gross income and at least EUR 5,000. In case of a repeat offence, the fine will be doubled.
Penalties for online platforms found to be in breach of the rules include 100 euros per customer for late submission of information, 300 euros per customer for failure to submit the required information, 300 euros per customer for providing incomplete or incorrect information, 1,000 euros per customer for non-compliance with the requests of the tax authorities, 2,500 euros per customer for non-cooperation during the audit, and 5,000 euros for each violation resulting from non-compliance with the rules after the audit, and fines can be up to 500,000 euros per audit.
