Greece has abandoned plans to launch new citizenship by investment scheme in 2020. This announcement was made during the introduction of non-domiciled tax residency to attract wealthy millionaires.
The Prime Minister after set of scandals in Cyprus ruled out a scheme in Greece offering citizenship for investors.
“Mr Mitsotakis has ruled out selling Greek passports to non-EU citizens, following a scandal in Cyprus last month over the €5m sale of a passport in 2015 to Jho Low, a Malaysian financier accused of involvement in a multibillion-dollar international fraud” according to Financial Times
Greece previously mulled introducing a citizenship by investment scheme few months ago to raise half a billion euros annually from a limited set of 200 investors per year who invested €2 million euros each.
With Greece abandoning plans, Malta, Bulgaria and Cyprus are only three EU member countries that offer citizenship by investment schemes in Europe. The Citizenship and Residence by investment (CRBI) schemes in Europe already face pressure from EU. The EU commission has appointed a member committee to monitor investor citizenship and residence schemes.
Instead of introducing a CBI scheme, Greece looks to introduce a Non-domiciled tax residence (NDTR) scheme, similar to Italy and Portugal to attract wealth millionaires.
Foreign investors must invest the following within 3 years after taking residence to benefit from tax residency.
-  €500,000 euro investment in Greece – €100,000 euro (flat tax)
- €1.5 million euros in real estate, stocks and bonds – €50,000 euro (Flat tax 50% cut)
- €3 million euros in real estate, stocks and bonds – €25,000 euro (Flat tax 75% cut)
The Tax residence scheme offers foreign investors a tax relief for 15 years and there is no inheritance tax for assets outside Greece.
The Golden visa scheme in Greece is extremely popular and Greece has already raised close to €3.6 bn euros, offering residence permits to close to 15,000 foreign property investors. Golden visa holders can only apply for citizenship, naturalizing after 7 years of living in Greece. There is no expedited or fast track procedure for citizenship in Greece.
