How to pay contractors in Greece

How to choose: four questions for paying contractors in Greece

Euros reach a Greek IBAN without friction. The decision turns on the currency you pay from, where your company is established, how dependent the contractor is on you, and the monthly amount per person.

1. Do you pay from a euro account in the EU, or from another currency?

A euro-area bank has had to send instant transfers since 9 October 2025: they arrive within 10 seconds and cannot be priced above an ordinary euro transfer (dnb.nl, checked 2026-09-29). From such an account, paying a third party for the transfer itself buys little.

From dollars or pounds, someone has to convert. A USD wire into a Greek euro account is converted by the receiving bank at its rate, and correspondent banks can take fees on the way. Wise quoted 9.87 USD on 1,000 USD sent to Greece when funded by bank transfer (wise.com, checked 2026-09-29).

If you hold euros in the EU: SEPA from your own bank, or any platform that pays to an IBAN. If you hold dollars: a transfer service or platform that converts at a disclosed rate and pays euros locally.

2. Is your company in the EU or outside it?

Either way, a Greek contractor bills you without Greek VAT: under Article 14(2)(a) of the VAT Code, business services are taxed where the customer is established (taxheaven.gr, checked 2026-09-29). What differs is the paperwork.

An EU business receives an invoice marked “Αντίστροφη επιβάρυνση” (reverse charge), accounts for VAT at home and should check the contractor’s EL VAT number in VIES. A business outside the EU is inside the scope of Greece’s B2B e-invoicing mandate, which covers transactions within Greece and with non-EU countries and reaches every remaining Greek business on 1 October 2026, with a transition to 31 December (ertnews.gr, checked 2026-09-29). The obligation is the contractor’s; the invoice you receive changes format.

If you are an EU business: get the VIES check before the first payment. If you are outside the EU: expect an e-invoice issued through the contractor’s provider, and pick a platform that accepts the contractor’s own invoice file rather than forcing a re-keyed copy.

3. Does the contractor work mainly for you?

Greek law looks at dependence in two separate places. For tax, a freelancer with written contracts with no more than three clients, or 75% of gross income from one, and no commercial status or separate premises, is taxed as an employee; AADE counts foreign clients (ecopress.gr, checked 2026-09-29). For labour law, work provided personally, “exclusively or mainly” to the same employer for nine consecutive months, particularly telework, is presumed to be employment (hli.gov.gr, checked 2026-09-29). The presumption can be rebutted, but the burden is on the client. See contractor misclassification.

If the contractor has several clients and scoped projects: a transfer rail or payout platform. If they have worked only for you for months: consider a Contractor of Record. 4dev acts as Contractor of Record — the contracting party for each contractor — which reduces reclassification risk. Deel, Multiplier and Rivermate also sign with the contractor; read the liability clause in the COR contract, not the product name. If the role is a job in substance: an Employer of Record such as Deel, Remote, Multiplier, Oyster or Rivermate.

4. How much do you pay each contractor a month?

A 3% fee on a €2,000 monthly invoice is €60. Flat seats of $29 to $49 per contractor cost less than 3% once invoices pass roughly $1,000–$1,650 a month, and a Contractor of Record at about €149 a month does so above about €5,000. A SEPA transfer from your own bank has no per-contractor fee, but the contract, the VIES check and invoice matching are then yours.

If you pay one or two contractors modest amounts: SEPA, a transfer service or a percentage-fee platform. If you run a standing team on larger invoices: price the seat plans against your real monthly totals. The full field is in the contractor payouts rating.

Payout rails into Greece in 2026

Sources: SEPA execution time from PSD2 Article 83 (EBA); instant-payment speed, pricing and the payee verification duty from DNB; Wise quotes from wise.com (all checked 2026-09-29). Inside Greece, instant payments also run under the IRIS brand operated by DIAS; a payer abroad uses SEPA Instant.

What the Greek contractor needs to get paid

Registration. A freelancer (ελεύθερος επαγγελματίας) files a start-of-business declaration (έναρξη εργασιών) with AADE; starting a sole proprietorship through gov.gr is a digital-only procedure with no fee (mitos.gov.gr, checked 2026-09-29). The alternative is a private company, the IKE, which pays 22% corporate tax (PwC Tax Summaries, reviewed 2026-09-08).

Contributions. The freelancer picks one of six flat monthly e-EFKA categories, from €250.77 to €675.87 for pension and health, plus €10 for unemployment insurance (e-efka.gov.gr, checked 2026-09-29). The amount does not depend on what you pay them.

A declared business account. Freelancers declare a business account (επαγγελματικός λογαριασμός) to AADE under Article 65 of Law 4446/2016 and collect client payments through it (sdstax.gr, checked 2026-09-29). That IBAN belongs on the invoice.

Invoices through myDATA. Each invoice is transmitted to AADE’s myDATA platform and receives a 15-digit MARK; the QR code on the invoice links to the record at AADE (koumparas.gr, checked 2026-09-29). For a client outside the EU, the invoice becomes a mandatory e-invoice from 1 October 2026. For an EU business client, the contractor needs an EL VAT number valid in VIES and marks the invoice “Αντίστροφη επιβάρυνση”. Greece’s small-business VAT exemption applies up to €10,000 of annual turnover (European Commission, checked 2026-09-29).

Income tax, the minimum presumed income, the block-invoice rules and IP are covered in our hiring guide.

Documents and tax on your side

VAT. Business services are taxed where the customer is established (VAT Code, Article 14(2)(a)), so the invoice shows no Greek VAT. For EU business clients it carries the reverse-charge mention and the contractor reports the supply in a recapitulative statement; clients outside the EU are outside Greek VAT on the same principle (taxheaven.gr, checked 2026-09-29). EU payers self-account at home and keep the VIES check.

Withholding. A foreign client without a Greek establishment pays the invoice gross. A freelancer whose income is not withheld pays advance tax of 55% of the year’s income tax, 50% in the first year, and files between 15 March and 15 July (PwC Tax Summaries, reviewed 2026-09-08).

US payers. Collect Form W-8BEN, or W-8BEN-E from an IKE. Personal service income is sourced where the work is performed (irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29), and foreign-source income is exempt from NRA withholding and normally needs no Form 1042-S (irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29); no Form 1099-NEC either.

The US–Greece income tax convention was signed at Athens on 20 February 1950, in force since 30 December 1953 and effective from 1 January 1953. Its Article X exempts a Greek resident’s pay for personal services, including the liberal professions, from US tax only if they spend no more than 183 days in the US in the tax year and either work under contract with a Greek resident or entity or earn no more than $10,000 (irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29). A Greek freelancer who travels to your US office under a direct contract and bills more than $10,000 for that work is not covered. Article X contains no fixed-base test.

What to keep, per contractor:

1. The signed services contract with scope, rate, currency and a written IP transfer.
2. Each invoice with its MARK, plus the reverse-charge mention for EU payers.
3. Proof of payment to the IBAN named on the invoice.
4. W-8BEN (US payers) or the VIES check (EU payers).

On a platform or Contractor of Record model, you keep the platform’s invoice and the platform holds the contractor’s contract and invoices.

Where payments to Greece break

• The invoice arrives without a MARK. An invoice transmitted to myDATA carries the number and a QR code; a PDF with neither has not been registered there. Ask for the MARK before you pay, especially during the October–December 2026 transition, when some freelancers are changing invoicing software.
• You pay an account the contractor has not declared. Receiving business payments outside the declared business account is the contractor’s tax problem, and not declaring one costs €1,000 (sdstax.gr, checked 2026-09-29). Take the IBAN from the invoice, not from a chat message.
• The name check flags a mismatch. Since 9 October 2025 euro-area banks must offer a service that checks the payee’s name against the IBAN before a transfer (dnb.nl, checked 2026-09-29). Record the name exactly as the contractor’s bank holds it, including its Latin transliteration, rather than as it appears in email.
• A USD wire shrinks on arrival. Correspondent deductions and the receiving bank’s conversion rate come out of the contractor’s amount, and the invoice then shows a shortfall. Pay euros, or agree in the contract who bears transfer costs.
• The contractor’s costs jump mid-contract. New freelancers can use a reduced e-EFKA category, €150.46 plus the €10 unemployment contribution in 2026 (taxheaven.gr, checked 2026-09-29), during their first five years of insurance; afterwards they move to at least the first category (eea.gr, checked 2026-09-29). Expect a rate review when that happens.