The 2026 annual tax report of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union highlights the steep taxation of labor in Greece, the excessive reliance on indirect taxes and the very high contribution of environmental taxes to public revenues.
The most worrying finding concerns the taxation of labor.
The implicit tax rate on labor stood at 44.8% in 2024, the highest level among the 27 member-states.
The index reflects the total tax cost of employment, as it includes income tax, employee and employer social security contributions, as well as any other financial burdens associated with paid employment.
Almost half of the money a company spends on employing an employee ends up in public coffers through taxes and contributions. The distance from the EU average is noticeable, as the corresponding index is 37.1%.
