Greece Did Not Touch the Golden Visa. It Amended the Tax Code Around It.
Greece has not changed its Golden Visa. Instead, it is reshaping the economics around it. A proposed increase in property transfer tax for non-EU residential buyers could materially affect future investment decisions, while the programme itself remains intact.
JURIS Editorial
On the evening of 5 September, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a trade fair in Thessaloniki that Greece would raise its property transfer tax fivefold for buyers from outside the EU. Three days later, his Finance Ministry narrowed the target and pushed back the date. The Golden Visa's investment thresholds have not moved. What it costs to use one just did, and holding a Golden Visa permit does not, on its own, buy an exemption.
On the evening of 5 September 2026, at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the room: "We decided to raise the transfer tax from 3% to 15% when buyers come from third countries outside the European Union. Because, indeed, the interest from countries such as China, Turkey, Israel ..." He framed it as a housing measure, naming those three countries specifically as sources of demand squeezing Greek buyers out of their own market.
Three days later, on 8 September, Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis and Deputy Minister Dimitris Markopoulos narrowed it. The tax applies to natural persons only, not companies. It covers residential property only, not commercial space or land. It exempts Greek citizens, EU and EEA citizens, the Greek diaspora (omogeneis), and non-EU nationals who already hold formal long-term-resident status. That last exemption is narrower than it sounds: long-term-resident status is a specific legal status, generally requiring five years of continuous legal residence, and is not the same thing as holding a Golden Visa permit. A Golden Visa holder who has not separately obtained long-term-resident status is not exempt. The start date also moved, from 1 January 2027 to 1 July 2027. Markopoulos said the delay was meant to let transfers already under way complete under the current rules: a sale that closes before 1 July 2027 is taxed at 3%; the 15% rate applies only to transfers closing from that date.
Greece's Golden Visa thresholds, €800,000 in the Attica and Thessaloniki regions, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with more than 3,000 residents, €400,000 elsewhere, have not changed. Its immigration law has not changed. The tax code did the work the residency law was never asked to do.
What actually changed, and what remains open
The arithmetic is blunt for anyone still buying after the new rate applies. On an €800,000 purchase closing on or after 1 July 2027, the transfer tax bill rises from roughly €24,700 today (3.09%, including the municipal surcharge) to about €123,600, an increase of close to €100,000 reported consistently across Greek outlets. That is calculated on the full transfer value, not on some amount above a threshold, and it sits on top of the investment itself. A transaction that completes before 1 July 2027 is unaffected and still pays 3%, whatever the buyer's nationality.
One route stays genuinely unresolved. Greece's lower-cost path, converting a former commercial or industrial building into a home for €250,000, exists specifically to add housing stock rather than absorb it. Developers and agents have asked for an exemption or a reduced rate; the Finance Ministry has not yet said which way it will go. Anyone committing capital to that route today is pricing in a tax rate the government has not yet fixed.
In my view, the choice of instrument is the real story. Greece already raised its Golden Visa threshold once, splitting the country into €800,000 and €400,000 zones in 2023. A Bank of Greece working paper published in March, as summarised in wire reporting, examined more than 109,000 transactions and found that reform mostly pushed reported demand into municipalities that kept the lower threshold rather than eliminating it. An entry price written into a residency programme teaches investors to move the border. A transfer tax, charged at the point of sale rather than baked into a visa threshold, is harder to route around with a different postcode.
It is also, unmistakably, politics before it is tax design. The Prime Minister named China, Turkey and Israel specifically in a speech about housing, a choice, not an accident, and it signals which capital the government is presently comfortable discouraging. None of this is yet law. The bill that would fix these numbers has not been published, and the effective date already moved once in the space of three days.
So what?
What this means for clients and advisers
- The Golden Visa's price has two components now, not one, for transactions closing from mid-2027. Model the full 15% on the transfer value for anything expected to complete on or after 1 July 2027; anything closing before that date still pays 3%.
- A Golden Visa permit is not the same as long-term-resident status. Only the latter is exempt. Do not let a client assume their residence permit covers them.
- The window is real but not legislated. The 1 July 2027 start date has been reported by multiple Greek outlets citing the Finance Ministry; it has not appeared in a published bill, and some earlier coverage still shows 1 January 2027. Track the gazette, not the headline.
- The €250,000 conversion route is the genuine unknown. Clients weighing it should assume the standard rate applies until the government states an exemption in writing.
- This is a transfer tax, not an immigration rule. It touches neither residence rights nor the path to Greek tax residency, which remain separate questions with separate tests.
The Takeaway
Greece just demonstrated that a government does not need to touch a residency programme's rules to change what the programme is worth. The tax authority can do the work the immigration ministry chose not to.
Model the 15% on the full transfer value for anything closing after mid-2027, confirm long-term-resident status rather than assuming it, and revisit the moment the implementing bill is actually published.
Dates to watch
30 Sep US EB-5: last day to file for statutory grandfathering protection under the Reform and Integrity Act
3 Oct Latvian parliamentary elections; a filed bill would scrap the golden-visa fund route (single source, carried from prior coverage)
16 Oct Washington DC Council public hearing on the Wealth Proceeds Tax Amendment Act
31 Dec Italy: last day to transfer tax residence and keep the right to combine the flat tax and impatriati regimes
1 Jan 2027 US EB-5 minimum investment automatically rises with cumulative inflation since 2022
1 Jul 2027 Greece's revised start date for the 15% transfer tax on non-EU residential buyers (some earlier reports still show 1 Jan 2027)
United States: EB-5 investors have five days left to file before the grandfathering deadline; a further automatic increase follows in January
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 protects petitions properly filed and accepted by USCIS on or before 30 September 2026 against disruption if the Regional Center Program's authorization were to lapse before its separate 30 September 2027 sunset. Petitions filed after 30 September 2026 lose that statutory protection, even though the programme itself remains authorized for one more year. Separately, current minimum investments of $800,000 (Targeted Employment Areas) and $1,050,000 (standard) are due to rise automatically on 1 January 2027, indexed to cumulative inflation since 2022.
Why it matters: fee levels sit in limbo alongside the deadline. Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney of the US District Court for the District of Colorado ruled on 12 November 2025, in Moody v. Mayorkas, that USCIS's April 2024 fee increases (to $11,160 for Form I-526E) breached the Administrative Procedure Act and the Act's own fee-study requirement, reverting the fee to $3,675. A proposed rule published in October 2025 would set an intermediate $9,625 fee and had not been finalised by late September 2026.
Italy : Flat tax and impatriati regime can no longer be combined from 2027; 31 December is the legal cut-off, not a safe planning date
Decree-Law No. 38/2026 of 27 March 2026, converted with amendments into Law No. 88/2026 on 22 May 2026, bars taxpayers from combining the neo-residents' flat tax on foreign income (Article 24-bis TUIR) with the impatriati regime for Italian-source employment income (Article 5, Legislative Decree 209/2023) from the 2027 tax year. The transitional clause, as quoted in Italian tax-press coverage, reads: "fino al 31 dicembre 2026, i contribuenti che trasferiscono la residenza fiscale in Italia potranno continuare ad applicare congiuntamente le due agevolazioni" (until 31 December 2026, taxpayers who transfer their tax residence to Italy may continue to apply both benefits jointly); the ban becomes fully operative for those transferring residence "dal periodo d'imposta 2027" (from the 2027 tax period).
Why it matters: the clause's own wording points to 31 December 2026, but Italy's ordinary residency test under Article 2 TUIR generally requires registration or presence in Italy for more than half the calendar year to count as tax resident for that year. Someone who registers Italian residence only in the closing weeks of 2026 may not, on that ordinary test, become a 2026 tax resident at all, and could still fall into the 2027 tax-period category the ban targets. Treat 31 December as the outer legal boundary stated in the text, not as a safe last-minute planning date, and take specific advice before relying on it.
France The "Zucman tax" is back for the 2027 budget debate, but no bill exists yet, and the Senate's own report does not endorse it
France's opposition Socialist party has said it will reintroduce a 2% minimum tax on net wealth above €100 million in its counter-proposal for the 2027 budget, reviving a measure the National Assembly adopted in February 2025 and the Senate rejected that June. As of 20 September 2026, no such tax is in force, no bill has been tabled for 2027, and the government had not yet submitted its own budget. A Senate Finance Committee report published 17 June 2026 examined why thousands of wealth-tax (IFI) households report zero or negative income tax, but its recommendations target specific optimisation techniques, holding companies, the Dutreil regime, share-for-share exchanges, not a new minimum wealth tax.
Why it matters: the proposal resurfaces every budget cycle, and mobile wealth holders with French exposure should expect the debate to return in the autumn negotiations regardless of this year's outcome. Some commentary flags a risk that a future version could apply retroactively to 1 January 2027 if eventually enacted with an early-year effective date.
United States, Washington DC DC Council weighs a 3% surtax on investment income that would push its top rate above California's
Councilmember Brianne Nadeau introduced the Wealth Proceeds Tax Amendment Act of 2026 in July 2026: a 3% surtax on capital gains, dividends, interest, rents and royalties above $400,000 for single filers or $500,000 for joint filers, modelled on the federal Net Investment Income Tax. Combined with DC's existing 10.75% top income-tax rate, the surtax would bring the top rate on investment income to 13.75%, above California's 13.3%. The Council has scheduled a hearing for 16 October 2026 covering several revenue-raising proposals, this one among them. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson told Axios on 21 September: "I do not want to sit here and say we will raise taxes."
Why it matters: this is a real, numbered bill, not a rumour, but its own chairman has stopped short of committing to a vote this year. It affects DC tax residency specifically, not federal or other-state tax residency, and is worth tracking as a directional signal rather than an imminent change.
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International tax lawyer · Immigration & relocation specialist
Italy
Marco Mesina is an international tax lawyer and the founder of Studio Mesina and Move to Dolce Vita. With more than a decade of experience, he advises high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, entrepreneurs and internationally mobile families on tax, immigration, relocation and real estate.
