The case involved a Serbian tax resident who rented out three apartments in a popular destination in northern Greece. A tax audit found that the owner had failed to meet several separate obligations under Greek tax rules. None alone accounted for the size of the final bill. Together, however, they produced a substantial penalty.
The biggest cost arose from Greece’s Short-Term Stay Property Registry, which is administered by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, known by its Greek acronym AADE. Properties offered for short-term rental are required to comply with the registry rules, and the relevant registration number must appear in listings on digital platforms and other forms of advertising.
What made the violation particularly expensive was the way the rules are applied: compliance is assessed separately for each property. As a result, a landlord who commits the same violation across several apartments can face multiple penalties rather than a single fine.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ
In this case, the tax authorities imposed a €5,000 fine for each of the three apartments, or €15,000 for each year under review. Because the violations covered three separate tax periods, the registry-related penalties alone reached €45,000.
The second issue stemmed from the number of properties being rented. Under Greek tax rules, the short-term rental of three or more properties can, when the relevant statutory conditions are met, be treated as a business activity rather than simply as income from property. That distinction is important because it can bring additional tax, registration and accounting requirements that generally don’t apply in the same way to an individual renting out one or two properties.
The audit found that the owner had failed to file the required declaration to commence business activity with the Greek tax authorities. That omission resulted in an additional €100 fine.
The third violation concerned accounting records. Once short-term rental activity is treated as a business for tax purposes, the operator becomes subject to corresponding bookkeeping requirements. The failure to maintain the required accounting records resulted in a further €2,500 penalty.
The combined bill came to €47,600. The owner challenged the assessment before Greece’s Directorate for Dispute Resolution, the administrative body that reviews tax disputes before they potentially proceed to the courts. She argued, among other things, that she wasn’t at fault, that the penalties weren’t adequately justified, that the overall burden was disproportionate and that she lacked the financial means to pay them. The appeal was rejected.
