The decision of many German retirees to spend the last part of their lives away from their country, moving their home to other places with better quality of life, sun and of course tax and financial benefits is reported by the financial newspaper Handelsblatt. Among other things, the report writes: “Greece, the Florida of Europe. Maybe the pure lovers of Greece will shudder with this vision. But the Greek government sees it as a viable business model. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis considers the country a retirement paradise. “It wants to attract retirees from the cold north to the sunny south.”
As Handelsblatt characteristically states: “It is not only the 3,000 hours of sunshine a year in Crete or Rhodes that is the reason. Retirees who move their tax residence in Greece are taxed at only 7% income tax (…) Despite the low tax rate, the relocation of retirees should be worth it for the Greek tax and economy, as retirees are expected to spend much of their income in Greece and maybe buy a house. Additional incentive: whoever buys a newly built property in Greece by 2024 is exempt from VAT. Greece is also a pole of attraction thanks to its low cost of living. According to calculations by the German Statistical Office in September 2021 the price level was 23% lower than in Germany. “According to a study by the DiaNEOsis think tank, Greece could earn up to 5 billion euros a year and create 60,000 new jobs thanks to the so-called ‘silver economy’, the settlement of foreign elderly citizens in the country.”
DW
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