More than 2 million debtors with obligations to the tax authorities, social security funds, and banks will be able to keep up to €350 more in their bank accounts each month starting in July, once the legislation announced by Kyriakos Pierrakakis is passed.

The measure will increase the protected (non-seizable) threshold for bank accounts from the current €1,250 to €1,600.

According to government sources, the Ministry of National Economy and Finance is already drafting the new provision, which will be added to a broader bill currently under public consultation and expected to be submitted to Parliament after June 15.

Officials clarified that the new protected threshold will apply not only to debts owed to the tax authority, social security funds, and the state, but also to debts owed to financial institutions and private creditors.

More Than Two Million Debtors Affected

Currently, around 1.7 million debtors face account seizure measures by the tax authority alone. This figure does not include approximately 1 million debtors with debts exceeding €500 to the social security system who may be subject to compulsory collection measures, nor borrowers with outstanding non-performing (“red”) loans.

Under the new framework, once implementing circulars are issued in July, incoming deposits will be protected up to €1,600 per month.

Any amount exceeding that threshold will still be subject to seizure. However, compared with the rules that have been in place for the past 11 years, debtors will be able to retain up to:

• €350 more per month, or
• €4,200 more per year

As a result, the effective annual protected amount rises to €19,200, compared with the current €15,000.

Important Conditions

To benefit from the protection, debtors must designate one—and only one—bank account (IBAN) as their protected account.

This declaration must be made not only with the tax authority but also with:

• The social security fund (EFKA)
• Banks and financial institutions

If the same IBAN has not been declared everywhere a person owes money, or if funds are held in other accounts, those funds may not be fully protected and could still be seized.

What Debtors Need to Be Careful About

Even under the new rules, deposits exceeding the monthly protected threshold of €1,600 will not be protected.

This means that people who receive large lump-sum payments rather than smaller, staggered deposits may see part of those funds seized if their monthly inflows exceed the protected limit.

As a result, while the measure substantially increases protection for many debtors, the actual benefit will depend on both the amount and timing of deposits into the designated protected account.