PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced a series of incentives to attract the global rich to invest in Greece.
On Thursday, the government revealed a legislative proposal of a flat tax of €100,000 on global earnings, if investors move their tax residence to Greece.
Mitsotakis said Greece is in need for investment if regeneration was to take hold.
This move came after Mitsotakis’ visit to Shanghai last week, where he told Chinese president Xi Jinping:
“Today in Greece there is a government that is determined to facilitate foreign investors, attract foreign capital and create wealth and prosperity for all Greeks in a way that is sustainable and protects the environment.”
Under the proposal, investors must reside in Greece for 183 days a year, and make a €500,00 euro investment within three years.
The tax law anticipates that further investments of the rich will have Greece’s businesses and households paying lower taxes.
Under the draft bill the corporate tax rate will be cut from 28% to 24%.
The relief measures in the programme, now put to parliament for debate, will apply until 2034.
“The tax incentive will run for a duration of up to 15 years and will include the benefit of no inheritance tax for assets outside Greece,” a senior official told Reuters.
“The investment can be in real estate, stocks or bonds. If the investment reaches €1.5m then the flat tax is cut by half.”
Investments of €3m or more would reduce the flat tax to €25,000.
The senior official also added that the measures would be irreversible despite changes in future government, so investors would be protected.
The government hopes the incentives will help lure back Greek shipping magnates who fled Greece due to its high taxes.
These measures were a result of the IMF’s economic report which predicted Greece’s economic rate would grow by 1.8% this year – higher than Australia’s.
Brussels – who released their autumn economic report on Thursday, said they foresaw Greece’s economy growing by 2% in 2021.
Greece itself are targeting economic growth rates of 2.8%, which the EU and other economic institutions found ambitious.
Though, the EU also predicts unemployment rates in Greece to drop from 17.3% to 15.4% in 2020. At the height of the economic crisis in 2008, Greece’s unemployment rate was almost 28%.
