Greece's 7% flat tax for foreign pensioners: 15 years, all foreign income, one deadline.

Article 5B of the Greek income tax code taxes a qualifying foreign retiree's entire foreign-source income — pension, Social Security, dividends, interest, rents, capital gains — at a flat 7% for 15 tax years. Live anywhere in Greece. Miss the March 31 application deadline and you wait a year. Here's the whole regime, precisely.

What Article 5B actually is

Law 4714/2020 added Article 5B to Greece's income tax code (Law 4172/2013), effective from tax year 2020. It is an alternative taxation regime for people with foreign pension income who transfer their tax residence to Greece. Instead of Greece's progressive rates — 9% to 44% in 2026 — the regime applies a flat 7% to your entire foreign-source income, not just the pension. Dividends from a US brokerage account, interest, rental income from the house you kept in Toronto, capital gains: if the source is outside Greece, it's inside the 7%.

Paying the 7% exhausts your Greek tax liability on that foreign income, including solidarity contribution. Anything you earn inside Greece — a Greek rental property, for example — is taxed at the normal progressive rates on top.

Who qualifies

Three conditions, all required:

1. You receive pension income from abroad. AADE accepts documentation from a social security institution, professional association, or insurance company proving a foreign pension is being paid. US Social Security, CPP, OAS, and private/occupational pensions all fit the category — the pension is the ticket in, and it doesn't need to be your largest income source.
2. You were not a Greek tax resident in 5 of the 6 years before moving your tax residence to Greece. First-time movers from the US or Canada clear this automatically.
3. You're moving from a country with a tax administrative-cooperation agreement with Greece. The United States and Canada both qualify.

The deadline that decides your first year

You apply to AADE's Tax Office for Residents Abroad & Alternative Taxation (Athens) by March 31 of the tax year for which you want the regime to start. AADE decides within 60 days. Miss March 31 and your application counts for the following tax year — meaning a full year of foreign income taxed at Greece's ordinary progressive rates.

Practical consequence: if you land in Greece in, say, September and become tax resident the following calendar year, diarise March 31 of that year now. It's use-it-or-lose-it, annually.

How the tax is paid

• The 7% is assessed on your foreign-source income and paid in one lump instalment by the last working day of July each year.
• No credits, deductions, or offsets apply against the 7% — it's a clean flat charge on the Greek side. (Whether foreign tax you've paid elsewhere is creditable is a treaty question for the other country, not for Greece.)
• The regime runs for a maximum of 15 tax years, after which you fall into the ordinary progressive system.
• You must actually be Greek tax resident — in practice, 183+ days a year in Greece. A paper move doesn't survive scrutiny, and the residence requirement is also what keeps your FIP permit renewable.

What it looks like in euros

*At €1 = $1.14 (1 July 2026). Each spouse applies for the regime individually; the table is illustrative of combined income taxed at 7%.

The American catch

The 7% is a Greek rate. The US taxes its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, so you keep filing US returns from Greece. The US–Greece treaty — signed 1950, in force since 1953, one of the oldest US tax treaties still running — plus foreign tax credits govern the interaction. Because 7% is usually lower than your US rate, many Americans end up paying the difference to the IRS: the regime reorders who you pay more than it cuts the total. For some income mixes it still wins; for others it's a wash. Model it with a cross-border professional before you elect, not after.

The Canadian side

Canadians who properly cease Canadian tax residency generally stop filing Canadian returns — but emigration triggers departure tax (deemed disposition of most assets), and Canada withholds tax at source on payments like RRIF withdrawals, with rates set by the Canada–Greece Tax Convention (in force 2010). CPP and OAS remain payable in Greece under the Canada–Greece social security agreement (1983, revised 1997). For many Canadian retirees the 7% regime is a genuine headline saving — the planning work sits at the exit, not in Greece.

Before you apply: the checklist

• Get your AFM (Greek tax number) — free via AADE. Everything else hangs off it.
• Gather pension evidence: award letters from SSA, Service Canada, or your pension provider.
• Confirm your non-residence history: 5 of the last 6 years outside Greek tax residency.
• File with the Tax Office for Residents Abroad & Alternative Taxation by March 31.
• Budget the annual payment for July, in one instalment.
• Book cross-border advice — US citizenship-based taxation or Canadian departure tax will shape whether 7% actually saves you money.