5A, 5B, 5C: The Three Greek Regimes, In Plain English
Greece runs three separate tax regimes for people arriving from abroad. They are named after articles of the tax code, they are routinely confused with each other and with the Golden Visa, and picking the wrong one is expensive in a way that takes a year to discover.
Start with the thing that causes the most confusion, because clearing it takes one sentence. The Golden Visa is a residence permit you obtain by investing. The regimes below are tax arrangements. They are separate systems, administered separately, and you can have either, both, or neither. Most people who move to Greece for the tax treatment do not need a Golden Visa at all.
Article 5A: the non-dom flat tax
This is the regime for wealthy individuals with substantial foreign income, and it is the one that gets written about. You pay a flat €100,000 per year covering all foreign-sourced income, regardless of how much that income actually is. Family members can join at €20,000 each per year. It is fixed for fifteen years.
To qualify you must not have been a Greek tax resident for seven of the previous eight years, and you must invest at least €500,000 in Greek assets within three years of applying. Crucially, that investment does not have to be property. Real estate, a business or securities all qualify, which means you can satisfy the obligation one way and buy the home you actually want separately.
For scale: 213 people are currently enrolled under 5A, with €277 million invested between them.
Article 5B: the pensioner regime
Foreign pension income taxed at a flat 7%, for fifteen tax years. That is the whole proposition, and for a great many people arriving from Northern Europe it is dramatically better value than 5A. The bar to entry is also lower than 5A’s: five of the previous six years non-resident rather than seven of eight, and you must transfer from a country with a tax cooperation agreement in force with Greece.
828 foreign pensioners have been approved under it, from 1,232 applications. It receives a fraction of the attention 5A gets, largely because there is less professional fee income attached to a 7% rate than to a €100,000 one. Consider that when you are being advised.
If your income is a pension, 5A is frequently the expensive answer to the wrong question. Ask about 5B first, and notice who does not raise it.
Article 5C: the worker and professional regime
A 50% exemption on Greek employment or business income, for seven years. The bar is again five of the previous six years non-resident, the work must fill a new job position or be your own business, and you must declare an intention to stay two years. It is aimed at people who will actually work here, and it explicitly includes Greeks returning from abroad, which is unusual and worth knowing if that describes anyone in your family.
3,860 workers and professionals have been approved, from 6,863 applications. It is by far the largest of the three by headcount, and almost invisible in the coverage.
Which one is yours
The rough sorting, which is not advice and will not survive contact with a complicated fortune:
- Large foreign investment or business income, not working here: 5A. The flat €100,000 becomes good value quickly as income rises.
- Foreign pension as the main income: 5B, at 7%, almost certainly.
- Intending to earn income in Greece, or returning Greek: 5C, at a 50% exemption for seven years.
- Wanting European residency without moving: none of the above. That is a Golden Visa question and a different conversation.
The part that catches people
Applications run on an annual cycle with a filing window, and the window moved in 2026. The old 31 March deadline was abolished by Law 5313/2026; the application now goes in by 30 September of the year you arrive or the year after, supporting documents may follow until 31 October, a decision comes by the end of November, and the tax is payable in a single instalment by the last working day of December. If you arrived after 2 July, you are applying next year, not this one.
Miss the window and you spend a full year on the ordinary Greek tax regime before you can try again. For someone whose foreign income runs into seven figures, that is the single most expensive administrative error available in this process, and it is entirely avoidable. The 2026 reform softened it in one useful way — the application is now accepted without documents, so an incomplete file no longer costs you the year.
Confirm this year’s deadline with a Greek tax adviser before you do anything else. Before you view property, before you make an offer, and certainly before you complete. The order of operations here is worth more than any individual decision inside it.
Across all three regimes there have been 8,309 applications and 4,901 approvals. That is a real administrative population, not a rumour, and it is the reason this coastline now has a service layer that did not exist five years ago.
