No property transactions for tax evaders
by Prokopis Hatzinikolaou, www.ekathimerini.com, 23 July 2014

The Finance Ministry is blocking real estate transactions for owners who have not paid their property taxes in the last five years. Any transactions attempted without the ENFIA certificate, whose title comes from the Greek acronym for the Single Property Tax, will be deemed invalid.

A ministry circular issued on Wednesday calls on notaries and land registry officials to be especially vigilant as they must turn down any application for filing a property transaction if the clearance paper documenting the full payment of property taxes in the last five years is missing.

All signs suggest that the level of the ENFIA tax payable by every property owner will be determined in the first half of August. The General Secretariat of Public Revenues will then start sending notices to owners so that they can print the payment order for the tax and the deadline for the first installment of the Single Property Tax will be set for August 31.

The tax will be payable in up to five installments with the deadline for the last set for December 31, but property owners can make corrections or amendments to their property details by November 30.