Plan contractor hiring in Greece

A Greece-resident professional can supply the foreign customer directly through an ατομική επιχείρηση after completing the Greek tax commencement process. The contractor invoices the service through that sole-proprietor identity. Article 39(9) is a separate onboarding test for a non-employee, freelancer or self-employed person whose monthly income comes from one or two counterparties. When it applies, the counterparty files the inclusion declaration by the tenth day of the month after service provision starts, files the monthly APD and pays the allocated contribution shares by the last working day of the following month. A foreign buyer with no Greek establishment should resolve applicability and filing implementation before the first fee becomes due.

Sources: Greek Government, digital start of a sole proprietorship, e-EFKA, Article 39(9) service-invoice declarations, AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 8

If the line is crossed

If the facts establish dependent employment, the foreign customer occupies the employer position for the relationship and the contractor label loses its intended effect. Greek guidance defines that position through the right to direct the place, time and manner of work and to supervise compliance, alongside the obligation to pay the agreed remuneration. The nine-month rule also changes the evidentiary posture when personal work is supplied exclusively or mainly to the same customer: the customer must confront the employment presumption with the actual operating facts. The customer should then correct the arrangement around its employer role and pay obligation.

Sources: Hellenic Labour Inspectorate, dependent and independent work

Βεβαίωση Έναρξης Εργασιών

Commencement certificate

This certificate confirms that the contractor's sole proprietorship has started. The digital process supplies a document that can be validated through gov.gr and retrieved from the contractor's myAADE record. Collect and validate it before approving recurring services. Once it is issued, the contractor can proceed to e-EFKA registration as a non-employee; the competent insurance authority registers the person automatically if that follow-on step is missed.

Issued by: The Greek tax administration generates the certificate through the government sole-proprietorship commencement service and makes it available in the contractor's myAADE records.

Timing: After the digital commencement process completes and before the corresponding e-EFKA non-employee registration.

Sources: Greek Government, digital start of a sole proprietorship

Τιμολόγιο Παροχής Υπηρεσιών

Service invoice

This is the contractor's accounting document for the foreign service. Greek accounting law makes the seller responsible for ensuring that an invoice is issued, including where the parties have agreed self-billing or third-party issue. The contractor also transmits the prescribed invoice and counterparty data to AADE through myDATA. That tax transmission does not deliver the invoice to the foreign customer, so accounts payable should still collect the contractor's issued document.

Issued by: The Greece-resident contractor issues it to the foreign business. An agreed self-billing arrangement does not remove the contractor's legal responsibility for issue.

Timing: By the fifteenth day of the month after a completed service, or after the period in which the relevant fee for a continuous service became due.

Sources: AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 8, AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 11, AADE Decision A.1138/2020 on myDATA transmission

An ordinary professional service to a foreign business follows the customer's establishment for Greek VAT, or the fixed establishment that receives the service. The Greece-resident contractor therefore ordinarily invoices this customer without Greek VAT. For a VAT-identified business in another EU member state, use the EL-prefixed supplier AFM, the customer's prefixed VAT number and the recipient-liability wording, then include the service in the recapitulative statement. For a non-EU business, the service stays outside Greek VAT and the EU identification and recapitulative statement fall away. Screen the service itself before applying that result because services connected with immovable property follow the property's location.

Sources: AADE legislation library, VAT Code Law 5144/2024, AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 9

What an invoice has to show

• The supplier's Greek AFM and the correct customer tax identifier

  The invoice identifies the contractor through the legal name, business address and Greek AFM, and identifies the customer through its legal name, address and applicable tax or VAT number. It also needs an issue date and a unique sequential number. For an EU business service, place the customer's country-prefixed VAT number beside the contractor's EL-prefixed AFM. Match both identifiers to the contracting supplier and customer before approval.

  Sources: AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 9, AADE legislation library, VAT Code Law 5144/2024

• When the recipient is liable for VAT, the words Αντίστροφη επιβάρυνση

  This exact Greek phrase states that the recipient accounts for VAT. Use it after confirming that the identified customer is liable for VAT on the service. The phrase belongs only where the recipient has that liability, so customer status must be settled before issue.

  Sources: AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 9

• When Article 39(9) applies, a statement that the contractor falls under that regime

  When Article 39(9) applies, the service invoice must state that the contractor falls under the regime. The notation signals that counterparty-side social-insurance work is active. The counterparty's inclusion declaration is due by the tenth day of the month after service provision starts, followed by the monthly APD and payment of the allocated contribution shares. Resolve the offshore filing implementation before accepting the first marked invoice.

  Sources: e-EFKA, Article 39(9) service-invoice declarations

The contractor issues the service invoice by the Greek accounting deadline, while the contract supplies the commercial due date and any acceptance step. Put the deliverable or service period, acceptance event and due date in one schedule so invoice approval does not create a second, undocumented clock. Rome I lets the parties choose the governing law; without a choice, a services contract generally follows the service provider's habitual residence, pointing toward Greece for this resident contractor. Record the choice expressly before relying on the Greek late-payment framework.

Sources: AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 11, EUR-Lex, Rome I Regulation

When invoices are settled

When Greek substantive law governs, the agreed payment date starts the B2B late-payment consequence after it passes. If the agreement supplies no date, the statutory clock generally reaches 30 days after invoice receipt, or follows service delivery when invoice receipt is uncertain or occurred earlier; an agreed acceptance procedure can also control the start. A contractual period should stay within 60 calendar days unless a longer period is expressly agreed and is not grossly unfair to the creditor. Once statutory default applies, the rate is the European Central Bank reference rate plus eight percentage points, and the contractor can claim a fixed EUR 40 recovery-cost amount without a prior demand.

Sources: AADE legislation library, Law 4152/2013 on commercial late payment

The currency on the invoice

The contractor can state invoice amounts in any agreed currency. Where Greek VAT is payable, the VAT amount must also appear in the national currency. Separately, Greek accounting records initially convert a foreign-currency transaction into the contractor's financial-statement currency at the exchange rate on the transaction date. A later difference arising at settlement enters the result for that period. State the contract currency, price and responsibility for conversion clearly, keep the same denomination through approval, and expect the contractor's Greek books to carry the required local accounting conversion even when the foreign customer settles the original invoice amount.

Sources: AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 9, AADE legislation library, Law 4308/2014 Article 27

Using a τίτλος κτήσης for a recurring contractor

The title-of-acquisition route is for incidental and ancillary activity where annual income stays within EUR 10,000 and the person has no business-commencement duty for that activity. A continuing professional relationship falls outside that description even when expected fees remain under the amount. Use the regular sole-proprietorship commencement for this continuing activity and collect the resulting certificate and AFM. Treating the EUR 10,000 limit as a general small-contractor exemption misapplies the incidental route.

Sources: e-EFKA, title of acquisition guidance, Greek Government, digital start of a sole proprietorship

Managing the work for nine months and relying on the contract label

An independent-services title cannot cure a delivery model in which the customer directs the place, time and manner of work and supervises compliance. The risk sharpens after nine consecutive months when the contractor supplies personal work exclusively or mainly to the same customer, because Greek law creates a presumption of concealed employment. Review the operating facts before that point and preserve genuine discretion over execution. A customer that needs day-to-day managerial authority should assess the relationship as dependent employment.

Sources: Hellenic Labour Inspectorate, dependent and independent work

Treating every foreign invoice as outside Greece's 2026 electronic-invoice mandate

Decision A.1128/2025, as amended by A.1044/2026, expressly includes non-EU B2B transactions in its mandatory electronic-invoice scope, alongside domestic B2B and government transactions. Entities above the specified EUR 1,000,000 2023 gross-revenue figure entered the first period on 2 March 2026, and remaining entities in scope enter on 1 October 2026. The listed foreign-business scope is limited to non-EU customers. Classify the customer's location and the contractor's implementation period before deciding the issue method.

Sources: AADE Decision A.1128/2025 on mandatory electronic invoicing, AADE Decision A.1044/2026 amending mandatory electronic invoicing