08.09.2026
Greece’s 2027 property changes: What buyers and owners need to know
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced series of housing measures affecting property buyers and owners at the Thessaloniki International Fair.
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If your car has Greek plates, you owe road tax (teli kykloforias) for 2026, and the deadline to pay it is 31 December 2025. Everything below explains how the amount is worked out, how to pay, and what to do if you are not using the car. If you own a property in Greece and keep a car here, this is the one piece of yearly admin you cannot skip. The principle is simple: every vehicle with Greek plates pays an annual fee to be legally on the road. It funds road infrastructure and lets the authorities keep track of active vehicles. A car on foreign plates follows entirely different rules, which we cover at the end.
What Exactly Is Road Tax In Greece?
Road tax is an annual fee that every owner of a Greek-registered vehicle pays in advance for the year ahead. If your car or motorcycle has Greek plates, you pay it. The amount depends on two things: when the vehicle was first registered, and its emissions or engine size. Greece uses three different methods depending on the registration date, so it is worth knowing which band your car falls into.
Cars Registered Up To 31 October 2010
For these older vehicles, the tax is based on engine size, measured in cubic centimetres (cc). The larger the engine, the higher the fee. Motorcycles are always taxed on engine size, whatever their registration date.
Cars Registered Between 1 November 2010 And 31 December 2020
For this group, the tax is based on CO2 emissions measured under the older NEDC standard, as shown on the registration document. Lower-emission cars pay less, and the cleanest cars in this band can be exempt.
Cars Registered From 1 January 2021 Onwards
For the newest vehicles, the tax is again based on CO2 emissions, but measured under the WLTP standard, which uses different thresholds from the band above. Fully electric cars (0 g/km) and cars emitting up to 122 g/km pay nothing. This split matters in practice. A car registered in, say, 2022 is assessed under WLTP, not under the same scale as a 2015 car, so check the date of first registration before assuming what you owe. According to AADE, the rates themselves do not change for 2026. They stay the same as the 2025 schedule, and the exemptions for electric and very low-emission vehicles remain in place.
When Is The Deadline For 2026?
The deadline to pay your 2026 road tax is 31 December 2025. There is no extension. The annual extension that drivers came to expect in past years no longer exists, and AADE applies the deadline strictly now that the whole process is digital. If you miss it, a surcharge is added automatically, and it climbs each month:
Paid in January: plus 25 percent
Paid in February: plus 50 percent
Paid from 1 March onwards: plus 100 percent
The surcharge is never less than 30 euros, even on a small amount. At the top of the scale, a 240-euro road tax becomes 480 euros if you pay in March or later. Paying on time is the only way to avoid this.
How Do You Check And Pay?
You can check and pay through the myCAR service on the myAADE platform, using your Taxisnet codes. Your notice carries a QR code, so you can pay straight from your banking app without typing in any details. You can also pay at a bank or post office using the notice. If the Greek portals feel like a lot to navigate, most owners simply ask their accountant to handle it. It takes only a few minutes.
What If You Are Not Using The Vehicle?
If you leave a car at your holiday home for long stretches, Greece lets you declare it off the road (akinisia) through myCAR. While the car is declared immobilised, you owe no road tax, but the vehicle cannot legally be moved, and AADE cross-checks this digitally. From 2025 onwards, AADE has tightened its checks. Vehicles with unpaid tax, no insurance or an overdue KTEO (technical inspection) are flagged automatically, and the fines for driving them can be significant.
Selling, Co-Ownership, And Plate Changes
AADE recently published an updated FAQ guide answering the questions that confuse owners most, including foreign owners.
On selling or buying: if you sell your car, you owe the tax for the year of the sale. If the paperwork is completed late and the transfer finalises in the following year, you also owe the tax for that transfer year.
On co-ownership: only one co-owner needs to pay. If the tax goes unpaid, though, all co-owners are equally liable for the full amount.
On a new plate number: if your plate changes, which is common after re-registration, you do not pay again. AADE links the old and new numbers automatically.
On proportional (monthly) tax: from 1 April each year, you can activate a car for a chosen number of months and pay only for that period. If you forget to immobilise it again once the period ends, AADE immobilises it for you.
What If Your Car Has Foreign Plates?
This is where the rules differ most, and where many owners get caught out. The key question is not how long the car stays in Greece, but whether you are resident here. If you spend more than 183 days in Greece in a calendar year, you are treated as a resident, and a resident must register the car on Greek plates. This applies to EU and non-EU owners alike. If your main home genuinely remains abroad, a foreign-plated car may be used in Greece for up to six months, continuous or not, within a twelve-month period, provided it is validly registered and insured in its home country. After that, the car must leave Greece or be formally imported and re-registered here. Using a foreign-plated car beyond what the rules allow carries heavy penalties. If you plan to live in Greece for most of the year, re-registering the car on Greek plates is usually the cleaner and safer route.
