Greece Forgives 13 Years of Back Property Tax for Owners Who Fix Their E9
For years, many Greek property owners have quietly carried mistakes in their tax records: a house listed smaller than it really is, a wrong ownership share, a storage room or plot that never made it onto the form. Greece is now offering a one-time chance to fix those errors without paying back taxes. On Friday, November 13, Parliament approved a rule that lets owners correct their property declarations for every year from 2014 to 2026 with no retroactive tax, interest or fines.
The rule is Article 51 of the Finance Ministry's large tax bill that carries the measures Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced at the Thessaloniki International Fair in September. Article 51 passed with 215 votes in favor, 20 against and 49 present.
What the New Rule Covers
The rule applies to the E9 form (Dilosi Stoicheion Akiniton), the property data declaration that the tax authority uses to calculate ENFIA, Greece's annual property tax. If an owner files a corrected E9 for any of those 13 years and the correction would normally mean more tax, the extra tax for each year, the interest and the fines are all waived.
Typical errors include the wrong square meters, the wrong co-ownership percentage, a usufruct or bare ownership right recorded incorrectly, or a property that is missing from the form. The waiver only applies to corrections that increase the tax owed. Corrections that would lower the tax or lead to a refund follow the normal rules of the tax procedure code, and the usual statute of limitations still applies.
The waiver also does not erase tax debts that have already been assessed, and it does not stop the tax authority from auditing a case. Its stated goal is to build an accurate record of who owns what before a new national property register goes live.
Why Greece Is Doing This Now
That register is MIDA, the Property Ownership and Management Registry run by AADE, Greece's Independent Authority for Public Revenue. MIDA will cross-check the E9 against other sources, including the E2 rental income form and the Hellenic Cadastre, the national land registry. Once that happens, gaps between what owners declared and what really exists will be much easier to spot.
Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis told lawmakers that for many years the state had no way to cross-check these numbers, so owners who declared a property but got the size or other details wrong should be allowed to fix them without penalties. Errors like these can come from inheritances, old building permits or simple confusion over how to fill in the form.
When the Window Opens and Closes
Owners cannot file under the new rule just yet. The deadline is the end of the fourth month after MIDA starts full operation, and no official start date has been set. Greek financial media report that MIDA is expected to launch in December after several delays. If that holds, the business site Insider calculates that the window would close on April 30, 2027.
The finance minister can extend the deadline on the recommendation of the head of AADE. A decision from AADE setting out the exact procedure, including how the corrected forms will be filed, is still pending.
Who Is Left Out
The final text is narrower than the version first sent to Parliament. During the debate, Pierrakakis added a change that excludes banks, loan servicers, the funds that buy bad loans through them, and people connected to them.
A second limit matters more for ordinary families. The tax waiver does not cover a property right that was never declared at all by the time the law took effect on November 13. In other words, an owner who declared an apartment but listed the wrong size can fix it for free, while an owner who never put a property on the E9 will still owe the property tax for the years it was missing.
What It Means for Owners Living Abroad
The E9 is not only for people who live in Greece. Anyone who owns property in Greece must file it, including Greek citizens and foreigners who are tax residents of another country. That makes the rule relevant to many Greeks abroad who own a family home, a village house or a share of inherited land.
Inherited property is where the line between a wrong entry and an undeclared right becomes important. Heirs who accepted an inheritance but never added their share to the E9 may fall into the undeclared category, where the back tax is still due. Owners abroad who are unsure which side of that line they are on should gather their contracts, inheritance acceptance deeds and building permits now, so they are ready when the filing window opens.
The same bill also raised the property transfer tax from 3% to 15% for home buyers who are tax residents outside the EU and the European Economic Area, a measure GetGreece covered in its article on the 15% home transfer tax vote. Owners abroad who need help reviewing their E9 or filing corrections can get assistance with GetGreece's Greek tax representation service.
Photo: Apartment buildings in Kolonaki, Athens, by macrolepis, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
