On Wednesday (2 December) Greece’s parliament passed a new law allowing digital nomads to half their income tax. This makes Greece the latest European country to try and woo the new work-from-home workforce, Forbes reports.
“If you can work from anywhere, why not work from Greece?” asks a promotional document seen by Greece’s parliament this week. Amid dreamy images of whitewashed farmhouses and deep-blue seascapes, it sets out a new law that allows newly settled foreigners to pay half their income tax over the next seven years.
From January 2021, the scheme will be open to both employed and self-employed workers as long as they have not previously been a tax resident of Greece, or replace an existing job in the country.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government hopes the tax break will attract the newly empowered ‘work-from-anywhere’ digital nomad, which Alex Patelis, chief economic advisor to the prime minister, describes as “the person who’s three months in Thailand, two months in Jamaica, and so on. We want them to be two months in Greece, and why not?”
A tender for rolling out 5G closes in Greece this month, and coverage is expected to be in major towns and cities in early 2021.
“This place is a paradise especially if you make good money,” says Taki Despo from his new home in Athens. He moved from New York after his firm, the design retailer Moro.com, allowed him to do his job as market relations director remotely.
“Covid didn’t really do much it just gave me a little courage to make this move.”
Kate Silcox, originally from the U.K. but now working as a photo editor for GQ Dubai from Athens, has spent a decade working remotely from various countries but thinks she will now stay in Greece if she can save on taxes. “It would encourage me to be fully committed and settle down there for longer in Greece.”
Greece is hoping that tax perks will make more expats like Kate stay.
Sourced By: Forbes
