If your turnover taxed in Greece stays at or below €10,000 a year, you can invoice without VAT. Greece calls it the special domestic scheme for small businesses (Article 44a of the VAT Code). It saves you periodic VAT returns and makes you up to 24% cheaper for private clients. It also costs you every euro of VAT you pay on your own expenses. Whether it pays off depends on who your clients are.
This guide covers the domestic scheme. For VAT on invoices to clients abroad, see VAT for freelancers with foreign clients.
The short answer
- Threshold: annual domestic turnover of €10,000 or less, excluding VAT, in both the previous and the current calendar year.
- Opting in: new businesses choose it in the registration declaration (Δ211). Existing ones apply through “My Requests” in myAADE. The exemption applies from the approval date.
- While exempt: no VAT on domestic invoices, a fixed exemption note on every invoice, no periodic VAT returns, and no deduction of input VAT.
- Crossing €10,000: VAT applies from the invoice that takes you over the limit, on its full amount. No way back for that year and the next.
- Foreign B2B clients: services to EU businesses don’t count toward the €10,000, but the Φ4 statement still applies.
Who qualifies
You need to be a VAT-registered business established in Greece: a freelancer, a sole trader or a company. The exemption is optional, never automatic.
The test is your domestic turnover: supplies of goods and services that are taxed in Greece, excluding VAT. Exempt exports and intra-EU supplies of goods also count. Your purchases and sales of your own capital goods (an old laptop, a car) don’t.
Two details matter:
- No annualisation. If you start in September and invoice €9,000 by December, you qualify. Part years are not scaled up.
- Both years count. If you were above €10,000 last year, you can’t use the exemption this year, even if this year will be lower.
The scheme is closed to farmers in the special farmers’ scheme. Occasional sales of real estate and sales of new means of transport are excluded from it.
How to opt in
At registration. When you file your start of business (Δ211), you select the “special domestic scheme for small businesses” as your VAT regime. The exemption applies from day one. See setting up as a freelancer in Greece for the full registration sequence.
Later. You file an application through “My Requests” (Τα Αιτήματά μου) in myAADE, together with a Δ211 change declaration. On the form you declare your domestic turnover for last year and for this year up to the filing date. AADE decides within 15 working days, longer in special cases. If it approves, the exemption applies from the approval date, not from the day you applied. Invoices issued before approval still carry VAT.
If you carry stock or capital goods, a stock declaration is due within two months of the switch. VAT you deducted on them earlier has to be partly or fully paid back.
How to opt out
You can move to the normal regime at any time during the year. You file a Δ211 change declaration within 30 days of your first invoice with VAT. From then on you file regular VAT returns, monthly or quarterly depending on your books and start date (see the Greek tax deadlines calendar).
Once you leave voluntarily, you can come back from the next calendar year at the earliest, if you still meet the conditions.
What happens when you cross €10,000
You move to the normal regime from the transaction that takes you over the limit, and that transaction is taxed in full, not only the part above €10,000.
Example. A translator has invoiced €9,200 to Greek clients by mid-November. On 20 November, she invoices a Greek agency €1,500. That invoice must carry 24% VAT: €360 on top of the €1,500. From that day she charges VAT on everything, files a Δ211 change within 30 days and starts filing VAT returns. Because 2026 turnover is now above €10,000, she can’t use the exemption in 2027 either. She can reapply in 2028 if her 2027 turnover stays within €10,000.
If you are close to the limit, check your running total before you issue each invoice.
Invoicing while exempt
Every invoice or receipt for a domestic sale is issued without VAT and must carry this note:
Χωρίς Φόρο Προστιθέμενης Αξίας – Απαλλαγή μικρών επιχειρήσεων (without VAT, small business exemption)
Each invoice is still transmitted to myDATA. Invoices to Greek businesses and to businesses outside the EU fall under mandatory e-invoicing from 2 November 2026, with or without VAT. See myDATA explained and e-invoicing in Greece.
The exemption is about VAT only. Income tax, EFKA contributions and the annual return run as usual. See freelancer taxes in Greece.
What you still file
No periodic VAT returns. But three filings can still apply:
- Extraordinary VAT return. If you buy B2B services from a foreign supplier and Greece is the place of supply, you account for the VAT yourself. Typical cases: advertising from Google or Meta billed from Ireland, software subscriptions billed by EU entities. You file an extraordinary return for that period and pay the 24%. A normal business would deduct it in the same return. You can’t. The only exception is a supplier using the EU SME scheme in Greece, recognisable by an “-EX” number on its invoice.
- Φ5 statement. Services and goods bought from EU suppliers under the reverse charge also go on the Φ5 recapitulative statement.
- Recapitulative statement (Φ4). If you invoice services to business clients in other EU countries, you file Φ4 for each month with such invoices, as a normal business would.
Foreign clients and the exemption
Services to business clients in other EU countries are taxed in the client’s country. AADE’s guide states that turnover in other member states is not examined for the domestic limit. You can therefore invoice €30,000 to a German agency and €6,000 to Greek clients and still use the exemption for the Greek part.
For the EU invoices nothing changes: reverse charge, the client’s VAT number on the invoice, a VIES-registered Greek VAT number (filed through a change declaration) and the monthly Φ4. You stay in the scheme, but you still can’t deduct input VAT.
Services to private clients in other EU countries are different: they are usually taxed in Greece and count toward the €10,000.
For business clients outside the EU, the place of supply is also abroad, and the same guide says turnover in third countries is not examined. It gives no worked example, so check your case before relying on the €10,000 limit.
The EU SME scheme: €100,000 and the EX number
Since 1 January 2025, EU Directive 2020/285 lets small businesses use the exemption in other member states too. A Greek business can apply it in Greece and in any member state whose own national threshold it meets, as long as its total turnover across the EU stays at or below €100,000 in the current and previous year. The €100,000 cap applies only to this cross-border scheme, not to the domestic one.
This matters mainly if you sell to private clients in other EU countries where local VAT would be due. You file a prior notification through the “European SME VAT scheme” application in myAADE. You then receive your Greek VAT number with the suffix “-EX”, and you file quarterly turnover reports by the last day of the month after each quarter. If you cross €100,000, you leave the cross-border scheme from that transaction and file a final report within 15 working days. For a freelancer with only business clients abroad, the domestic scheme is usually enough.
When opting out pays off
The exemption usually wins if you sell mostly to private individuals in Greece (tutoring, therapy, yoga, small trades) and your costs carry little VAT. For your clients, your price is 24% lower than a competitor’s.
Opting out usually wins if your Greek clients are VAT-registered businesses and you have real costs.
Example. A web designer bills €9,000 a year to Greek companies. This year she buys a laptop for €2,500 and pays €2,000 for software and coworking, plus €1,080 of VAT on top. Under the exemption, that €1,080 is a cost. Her clients would have recovered any VAT she charged, so the exemption saves them nothing. In the normal regime she charges €2,160 of VAT, deducts €1,080 and pays the difference.
Run the numbers before you register, not after. Once you are in the normal regime, the earliest move back is the next calendar year.
At taxomade, we check which regime fits your client mix, then prepare and file the Δ211 declarations, Φ4 statements and VAT returns as part of our ongoing bookkeeping, from €89 a month, in English, German or Greek. Send us a message on WhatsApp or through our contact form for a free compliance check.
FAQ
What is the VAT threshold for small businesses in Greece?
€10,000 of annual domestic turnover, excluding VAT. You qualify for the small business exemption (Article 44a of the VAT Code) only if you stay at or below €10,000 in both the previous and the current calendar year. Greece does not annualise the figure for businesses that start mid-year.
Do I have to file VAT returns under the small business exemption in Greece?
No periodic VAT returns. You still file an extraordinary VAT return for any period in which you must self-account for VAT, for example on B2B services bought from foreign suppliers. EU purchases also go on the Φ5 statement, and invoices for services to business clients in other EU countries go on the Φ4 statement.
What happens if I exceed €10,000 in Greece during the year?
You move to the normal VAT regime from the transaction that takes you over the limit, and that whole invoice carries VAT. You cannot use the exemption for the rest of that year or the following calendar year, because the previous-year test then fails. After that, you need to apply again.
Can a freelancer with foreign clients use the Greek small business exemption?
Yes. Services to business clients in other EU countries are taxed there, and AADE’s guide says turnover in other member states is not examined for the €10,000 domestic limit. You keep invoicing them under the reverse charge and still file the Φ4 statement. They only matter for the EU-wide €100,000 limit if you also use the cross-border scheme.
What must an invoice say under the small business VAT exemption in Greece?
The invoice carries no VAT and must include the note “Χωρίς Φόρο Προστιθέμενης Αξίας – Απαλλαγή μικρών επιχειρήσεων” (without VAT, small business exemption). It is still transmitted to myDATA, and B2B invoices to Greek businesses fall under mandatory e-invoicing.
Is it better to opt out of the small business VAT exemption in Greece?
Often, if most of your clients are VAT-registered businesses that can recover the VAT you charge, or if you have high costs with VAT on them. Exempt businesses cannot deduct input VAT. If you sell mainly to private individuals in Greece and have few costs, the exemption usually wins.
Rules as of November 2026 (sources: VAT Code, Law 5144/2024, arts. 44, 44a, 44c and 44d, art. 44a as inserted by art. 227 of Law 5222/2025; joint decisions A.1011/2026 and A.1010/2026; AADE FAQ on the special scheme for small businesses of 30 December 2025; AADE guide to the SME VAT system of 29 January 2026; Council Directive (EU) 2020/285).