Intro

This is the second post in the series of opening a business in Greece. In this part, I am going to cover the bank account opening part. Every business needs a bank account where invoices can be paid and the one I am opening is no exception. As part of this blog, you will learn what documents I needed to supply to my bank and hopefully learn from my mistakes.

Choosing a bank

Greece has various banks in operations and nowadays some online options as well such as Revolut. I wasn’t brave enough to try the online banks for the time being so I went with Peiraus. They have the Winbank app which seems easy to use and with enough options for the day-to-day. It’s also one of the established banks in Greece perhaps alongside the National Bank of Greece.

Waiting times

One thing that struck me initially was how long the appointments are taking to be able to open one such account in Peiraus. They told me ten days later. Thankfully I managed to find a way to get an earlier appointment but be aware that opening a bank account might not be a next-day kind of deal.

Documentation

If you are already a resident of Greece you will be asked to supply a tax clearance document (Εκκαθαριστικό) but in my case, since I was an ex-pat returning, I didn’t need one.

I brought the following documents with me:

• Rental Agreement(Μισθωτήριο)
• Letter(Υπέυθυνη Δήλωση) from Landlord that they allow me to use their premises as my business base
• Letter from the Revenue about my business starting operations(Βεβαίωση Έναρξης)
• Id

How it went

When I went in the clerk required me to also provide a signed statement that I wasn’t able to procure the tax clearance for 2022 since I was living abroad. Keep in mind that to procure signed statements you have two options. One is to visit a KEP(Κέντρο Εξυπηρέτησης Πελατών) and the other is to do it online via Gov.gr. To do it online though you will need a bank account as this is how they confirm your phone number and your identity in Gov.gr. Don’t ask me why taxisnet that I have already setup doesn’t work though 🤷‍♂️.

The POS situation

I was told by my accountant that all companies need a POS these days. This wasn’t entirely true. After asking around and with the help of the Twitter army I realized that I made the mistake of applying for and getting a POS. Acquiring one will set you back by €150-€200 depending on the bank, let alone the monthly subscription to run it. If you need one there’s a better offering from Viva Wallet. Their ePOS costs nothing to run other than the fees which might be better for you if you intend to keep it largely unused. In my case, I ended up returning it for a refund(hoping to get one that is) as it turns out that for B2B transactions this isn’t needed. With all that said, the area is a bit gray so better consult your accountant for a more accurate picture of your setup.

The offer for “more services”

Once the bank account opened the clerk asked me which “package” I was interested in. That seems to be a sales tactic to sell you some insurance or other products as part of your business account. They presented it to me as being something mandatory for Peiraus which I haven’t found any evidence to date. I managed to dodge that for the time being and you should too if they try to sell you anything similar as “mandatory” with your business account.

Access to the mobile app and web

As soon as the bank account opened I was able to download the mobile app and log in. Once I got home I logged into Gov.gr and created a signed statement that I mentioned above since I was now able to authenticate and identify myself in Gov.gr so I didn’t need to visit KEP to do it. I forwarded the letter to the clerk and that was the end of my journey to open a bank account.

Next Steps

• Signing the agreement to provide services
• Getting a company stamp
• Kick-starting the steps to avail to ΑΡΘΡΟ 5Γ
• Generating my first invoice via GOV.gr

Intro

This is a series of articles that document my experience returning to Greece to work remotely for Ardanis.com via a brand new company that I plan to create in Greece. I hope that it will help others that may be in similar situations find clues and a path to do the same. If you got specific questions or feedback do not hesitate to ping me on twitter.

Returning to Greece

As you may know, I am Greek and I moved to Ireland about 11 years ago. Due to my circumstances and the flexibility of my profession, I decided to move back to Greece and work remotely in late 2022. I cofounded Ardanis.com in 2016 and turned my passion for software craftmanship into a successful software consultancy. If you are looking to get something built at a level that is only found in high-end companies then give us a shout!

Up until the end of 2022, I have been a permanent employee of Ardanis since I lived in Ireland but since we lack an entity in Greece, I will have to continue providing my services to the company via a Greek entity that I plan to create. The plan is to create this company in Greece and provide services exclusively to Ardanis. I plan to recruit in 2023 so if you are interested then make sure to follow me on Twitter where I’ll be posting these jobs.

Incentives

A big incentive for expats such as myself was the scheme that offers 50% tax reduction for 7 years to Greeks that have worked at least 5 years abroad. The tax legislation is called ΑΡΘΡΟ 5Γ ΚΦΕ. After I left in 2011, I gathered all the necessary documentation in 2015 so I can move to the revenue department of foreign citizens. At this point, I hope that this in combination with the documentation I have exported from the Revenue.ie will allow me to apply and succeed in getting the tax discount for the next 7 years.

IKE or Atomiki?

There are two possibilities for what I am looking to do basically. IKE type or Atomiki. There are quite a few factors to consider when looking at both of these options but to make it simple for you then remember this: If you are eligible for “ΑΡΘΡΟ 5Γ” tax relief then Atomiki wins out by a great margin. Otherwise, if you are not eligible, go for IKE.

A good accountant

I cannot stress enough how important it is to find a good accountant. In the landscape of the Greek tax system which is still a labyrinth to navigate, a good accountant will make all the difference in the world. If you have people already in Greece ask around for references. Check a few and go with the one you feel has the best skill, even if you have to pay a bit more you risk less creating a “black hole” and gain more by maximizing what you can “expense” since they will guide you.

Overview of the setup

• Work from home initially
• Have my rented house registered as the base of the company

Prerequisites

• Rental Agreement from taxis
• Taxis login credentials and Kleidarithmos

First steps - Week of 02/01/2023

Having spoken with my accountant before this date, the plan was to create the company immediately in 2023. Here’s what we achieved in a week.

Transferring tax residence to Greece

To start the company creation I needed first to go to DOY and transfer my tax residence to Greece. You need to book an appointment with the Foreign DOY department via Taxis and go there with the rental agreement to get this sorted. Once you are there, they will check if you have any outstanding tax obligations and if not, you will be requested to fill out two forms: M1 and M7(in the case where you had a tax representative before).

Company creation

To create the company, my accountant requested the following documents

• The rental agreement from taxis
• A statement from the landlord that he allows me to use his property for business operations
• Id scan
• Short description of the kind of services I would be offering
• Optionally: An alias of the company. I left it as my full name for now but may change it later.

Getting registered in EFKA

EFKA is your public health/pension insurance and contributions. The accountant typically registers someone who already has been there seamlessly with EFKA but in my case, there was a problem so I had to go there physically and see what was going on. The plan was to enroll me in the special category of 136 euros per month for 5 years since I am a new business owner in Greece. For this purpose he equipped me with the following documentation(printed):

• Company enrollment document
• Rental agreement from taxis
• Landlord statement(See above)

He also booked the appointment with the Μητρώο so I can simply go in. Turns out that as soon as I went there, EFKA had everything ready for me and they simply handed me two printed pages that were the evidence that I was now enrolled in that scheme.

If you are enrolled in EFKA after you pay them two months’ worth of contributions you are then eligible to get a Βιβλιάριο which is your full access to the public health system and medication coverage.

End of the first week

That’s not bad for a week’s worth of effort. That said, compared to the Irish system, I think we have quite a few things to improve. Physical presence should only be required once and then everything else should be done via the internet.

Next Steps

• Signing the agreement to provide services
• Getting a company stamp
• Opening a bank account and getting a mandatory POS
• Kick-starting the steps to avail to ΑΡΘΡΟ 5Γ
• Generating my first invoice via GOV.gr

Closing words

If you find the above interesting consider subscribing to the RSS feed and following me on Twitter where I post regularly about my experience moving and working remotely from Greece.

See you next week!