When you become a business: three properties, VAT and services

Greek law treats short-term rental in two very different ways. On one side of a line you are a private person letting property. On the other side you are running a business, with everything a business carries.

The line is three properties. This page explains where it sits, what else can put you across it, and what changes once you are there.

What makes you a business

IIf you are a private person and you rent three or more properties short-term, your activity is a business. This has applied since 1 January 2024, under Law 5073/2023.

Properties are counted by AMA registry numbers, not by buildings. Two apartments in the same building are two properties. A house you own but do not rent short-term does not count.

Companies are different. A company is always running a business, even with a single property.

Services are the other trigger

Property count is not the only way across the line.

You may give your guests bed linen. That is all. If you add anything else — breakfast, cleaning during the stay, airport transfers, tours, a guide — the property stops being a short-term let and becomes tourist accommodation.

That is a bigger change than the tax one. Tourist accommodation needs its own operating licence and follows its own rules. One property is enough to trigger it.

Registering the activity

You file a declaration of business start, or of business change if you are already registered for something else, through myAADE. Do it before you begin, not after.

AADE names two activity codes for this: one for short-term rental through digital platforms and one for rental outside them. Your accountant will pick the current code, since the code list was renumbered in 2025.

From that point you keep books, issue a document for every stay, and send the data to myDATA.

VAT at 13%

Once you are a business, short-term rental is a service, and services carry VAT. The rate is 13%.

Below the line there is no VAT at all. One or two properties, no services, and the rent is exempt.

This is the change hosts underestimate. The 13% sits inside the price your guest pays — it is not added on top. Unless you raise your prices, it comes straight out of your revenue.

VAT returns are filed through myAADE. With single-entry books that is every three months; with double-entry books it is monthly.

There is a small-business exemption for turnover under €10,000 a year, which could apply to a very small operation. Ask before you assume it applies to you.

How the income is taxed

Business income does not use the property scale. It uses the general scale:

• Up to €10,000 — 9%
• €10,000 to €20,000 — 22%
• €20,000 to €30,000 — 28%
• €30,000 to €40,000 — 36%
• Over €40,000 — 44%

From 2026 there are reduced rates for parents and for people under 30. Ask your accountant whether they reach your case.

There is one large advantage on this side of the line. A business deducts its real costs — cleaning, platform commission, utilities, insurance, repairs, furniture, the accountant. A private host with one or two properties gets a flat 5% and nothing else.

So a business is not automatically the worse outcome. It depends on how much you actually spend.

Social security, books and the business levy

Registering an activity normally brings social security contributions to EFKA, paid in monthly classes you choose. This is the cost hosts forget most often, because it does not move with your profit — a quiet year costs the same as a busy one. It is also the point where individual circumstances matter most, so confirm your own position with an accountant before you register.

Books and an accountant become a monthly cost rather than an annual one.

The business levy no longer applies to private persons. It was abolished from tax year 2024 by Law 5162/2024. Companies still pay it — €800 or €1,000 a year, depending on where they are based.

The charges that come with the third property

Crossing the line also brings in the municipal accommodation tax, which uses the same three-property threshold.

Two things do not change, because they never depended on your size. The climate resilience fee applies from your first guest. So does the requirement to hold an AMA registry number for each property.

Is it worth staying under three?

Some hosts stop at two deliberately. It is a real decision, and the arithmetic is less obvious than it looks.

Staying under means no VAT, no registration, no contributions, no books — but only a flat 5% deduction, and tax starting at 15% on the first euro.

Going over means 13% out of your revenue and a fixed monthly cost in contributions and accounting — but your real expenses come off, and the rates start lower, at 9% on the first €10,000.

Which side wins depends on your revenue, on how much you genuinely spend running the properties, and on whether you already pay social security through a job or a pension. That last point can change the answer completely.

This is a calculation, not a rule. Do it with an accountant before you take on a third property, not after.

Where this comes from

• AADE — Practical guide to short-term rental (September 2024)
• AADE — Frequently asked questions, short-term rental (September 2025)
• AADE — Short-term rental of property
• Taxheaven — AADE’s guidance after law 5073/2023
• e-nomothesia — the abolition of the business levy for natural persons, Law 5162/2024
• KRS — obligations for hosts with three or more properties

Rules change. This page was last reviewed on the date shown above and is general information, not legal advice. Check the official sources before you file, or ask an accountant.