Businesses Outperform Households in Tax Compliance, Analysis Shows

Significant differences between businesses and households in tax compliance and payment behavior are revealed in the Independent Authority for Public Revenue’s (AADE) analysis of tax collection data for the first eight months of 2025.

Businesses continue to demonstrate strong tax discipline, with an on-time payment rate of 89.46% for income tax. Out of a total tax liability of €4.36 billion, they paid €3.90 billion on time. Their best performance was recorded in March, reaching an impressive 97.72% compliance rate.

In contrast, individual taxpayers showed considerably lower compliance, with an on-time payment rate of 73.54%. Against assessed liabilities of €2.66 billion, they paid €1.95 billion on time, leaving 26.46% of obligations outstanding.

Despite these variations, the overall tax compliance rate across all categories stood at 82.09%, supporting the government’s primary budget surplus target of 3.6% of GDP. High collection efficiency, combined with anti-tax-evasion initiatives and rising revenues, continues to underpin the fiscal surplus.

Tax Collection by Category

Value Added Tax (VAT), primarily paid by businesses, showed a solid collection rate of 81.86%. Out of €13.9 billion owed, €11.38 billion was collected, leaving 18.14% uncollected.

This level of compliance is considered strong, particularly given the implementation of MyDATA, the electronic invoicing and reporting system that automatically determines VAT liabilities based on real-time invoice and receipt data submitted to the AADE by businesses and consumers.

Because liabilities are now established from verified transaction data—rather than businesses’ self-declarations—the fact that 8 out of 10 euros in VAT are paid on time marks a major improvement over previous years.

Nevertheless, there remains significant room for improvement, as late payments of income tax still reach around 10% among businesses and over 26% among individuals.

ENFIA Collections and Tax Ranking

Tax collections from businesses have now surpassed those of ENFIA, the property tax long regarded as Greece’s most reliably collected levy. ENFIA achieved a collection rate of 78.16%, slightly below that of VAT. Out of €1.61 billion in ENFIA installments, €1.26 billion were paid. In August alone, 6.16 million property owners paid €153.7 million, against total liabilities of €190.7 million.

Based on AADE’s data, the ranking of taxes by collectability is as follows:

• Corporate income tax: 89.46%
• Value Added Tax (VAT): 81.86%
• ENFIA property tax: 78.16%
• Personal income tax: 73.54%

Rise in Unpaid Liabilities

The lower compliance among individual taxpayers contributed to an increase in new unpaid debts, which reached €6.14 billion, marking a 24.8% rise compared to the same period in 2024 (€4.92 billion).