The Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX)
What it is
the Athens Stock Exchange (Χρηματιστήριο Αθηνών) is Greece’s primary venue for equities, bonds, ETFs and derivatives, regulated by the HCMC. Everything is euro-denominated, so a euro-based investor has no currency conversion to manage.
The tax sweetener (the big one)
gains on listed ATHEX shares are exempt from the 15% capital-gains tax as long as you hold under 0.5% of the company — which covers essentially all retail investors. Put differently, the gain is taxed only if you hold 0.5% or more. This makes Athens-listed equities unusually tax-efficient for ordinary investors.
The small cost that remains
instead of capital-gains tax, a sale of listed shares carries a transaction duty of 0.1% (one per thousand, 1‰) on the sale value (set by Law 5073/2023). It’s a fraction of what the 15% gain tax would be — but it’s the figure to use, not the older 0.2% rate that some sources still quote.
Dividends from ATHEX shares
taxed at the standard 5% dividend rate (among the lowest in the eurozone) — see investment tax.
How you access it
through a Greek bank’s brokerage arm (Eurobank, Alpha, Piraeus, NBG) or an international broker that offers Athens-listed instruments. Orders route through the exchange’s central system.
Foreigner lens
you need an AFM and a broker account. A foreigner who is a Greek tax resident is taxed on the same favourable terms as a citizen — and declares worldwide investment income to AADE.
How not to get cheated
the 0.1% duty (not 0.2%) is the current figure — don’t let an out-of-date source overstate your cost. And the CGT exemption is a genuine structural advantage of holding listed Greek shares directly; just don’t confuse “tax-efficient” with “low-risk” — single-stock and single-market concentration is its own risk (see diversification).
Related
investment tax · brokerage access · diversification · saving & investing overview
This is general information, not investment or tax advice. Rates and the transaction duty can change — confirm with AADE / ATHEX before relying on a figure. WTP Finance is informational only.