Greece · Retirement
Alternative Taxation for Foreign Pensioners (Article 5B, Law 4172/2013)
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Last verified July 2026
7% flat tax on ALL foreign-source income — not just pension — for up to 15 tax years, for foreign pension recipients transferring tax residence to Greece.
Structurally the most generous of the three Greek regimes and the most overlooked: 7% applies to all foreign income — dividends, interest, rents, capital gains — not merely the pension that qualifies you. A retired principal with a modest foreign pension and a large portfolio pays 7% on the lot, with no EUR 500,000 investment and no lump sum. Below roughly EUR 1.4m of foreign income it beats the EUR 100,000 Article 5A regime outright.
Qualifying routes
—
Foreign pension recipient transferring tax residence
no investment requirement — the key structural advantage over Article 5A
The facts
- Total landed cost
- 7% of all foreign-source income annually, settled in a single payment by the end of July. No investment requirement, no lump sum, no entry fee.
- Timeline
- 2–6 months — application to the tax authority by 31 March of the relevant year
- Physical presence
- Greek tax residence required
- Family
- spouse and dependants may transfer with the applicant; each individual's own eligibility is assessed separately
- Permanent residency
- n/a — a tax regime
- Citizenship
- n/a
- Language test
- n/a
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- recipient of a foreign pensionnot a Greek tax resident for at least 5 of the 6 years preceding the transfertransfer of tax residence from a state with an administrative cooperation agreement in tax matters with Greeceapplication by 31 March; tax settled in one payment by end of July
What can go wrong
- You need a genuine foreign pension to qualify — the regime is gated on pension receipt even though the 7% then applies to everything.
- Five-of-the-last-six-years non-residence in Greece is required.
- Your prior state must have an administrative cooperation agreement in tax matters in force with Greece — this excludes some origin countries entirely.
- Greek-source income is taxed normally at up to 44% and must be declared.
- 7% is a rate, not a cap: unlike Article 5A there is no ceiling, so above roughly EUR 1.4m of foreign income the EUR 100,000 flat tax becomes cheaper. Model both.
- As with 5A, foreign tax credit interaction is the main leakage and treaty access can be questioned.
- 15-year limit, then the ordinary 44% scale applies.