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fiscal benefits applied to business activities based
in small Greek islands which have fewer than 3,100 inhabitants.
The legislation applied until 2006 and was of potential
interest to hotel and tourist operations.
Business
entities which qualified for this regime were entitled
to a 40% reduction in all business taxes.
This
regime was included on the list of 'Harmful Tax Practices'
issued by the EU's Code of Conduct Committee. The government's
new 2005 investment incentive programme has had an impact
on the size and nature of regional investment incentives.
A new,
general-purpose development incentive law was promoted
by the government in 2005 and was received very warmly
by the business community. In the first ten months of
its implementation (end of March 2005 till the end of
January 2006) 1,234 applications were submitted accounting
for EUR2.47bn.
The law
offers a combination of incentives and corporate tax
breaks and is aimed at sectors of the economy that are
open to international competition, such as tourism,
information technology, financial services, and quality
agricultural exports.
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