Establishment of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs)

The founding of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is launched at/on the initiative of individuals or group of persons. Any natural or legal person, whether national or foreign, and any group of such persons is free to set up an NGO. In accordance with Article 127 of the Civil Code natural persons must have reached the age of 18 in order to establish a NGO. Any interested party may choose one of the following legal forms:

• Non-profit-making civil law partnership (741-784 CC)
• Non-profit making association/union (78-107 CC)
• Public benefit purpose foundation (108-121 CC)

Prerequisite for the establishment of a NGO is its non-profit nature, irrespective of the classification attributed to it by the founders. It is always in the discretion of the competent Internal Revenue Service/ Tax Office as it depends on the facts and circumstances of each case.  A non-profit legal person does not principally have any gainful/profit-making concerns and does not distribute the profits from its activities to its members or founders but uses them to achieve its goals.

Value – Added Tax (VAD) exemption for NGOs (Art. 22 L. 2859/2000)

• revenue/income from occasional events organized for the financial support of legal persons, provided that these events do not exceed two (2) per year.
• the provision of services and the closely related supply of goods to their members against payment of contribution by non-profit legal persons and organizations pursuing, in their common interest, political, trade union, religious, philosophical, charitable or national purposes as long as they do not cause a distortion of competition
• the provision of cultural or educational services and the closely related supply of goods by legal persons or non-profit-making foundations which operate legally and have cultural or educational purposes as long as they do not lead to distortion the of competition.
• These services include those provided to visitors to museums, monuments, archaeological sites or other similar sites, as well as the organization of artistic events/performances, exhibitions and lectures.

Generally speaking/As a rule, the income of non-profit-making persons is not subject to VAT on the condition that they are incurred in the pursuit of their purpose, unless they are the result of operations deriving from a commercial activity or a similar provision of services.

State Supervision Issues for non-profit-making legal entities (including NGOs) providing social care (Art. 7 of L. 4455/2017)

Non-profit-making legal persons under private law/private entities, such as charitable associations/ unions, public benefit purpose foundations, non-profit-making civil law partnerships, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), recognised bodies by a special legislation/legislative procedure, branches of international NGOs providing social care services are required to register as users of the National Registry. When registering, they declare the following information:

1. identity of the operator/body (name of the body, Tax Registration Number, registered office, articles of association, geographical impact/coverage of the activities,
2. contact details of the legal representative in Greece, where appropriate,
3. social care services,
4. number of the beneficiaries-recipients of the social care services,
5. number of employees and their specialisations,
6. number and specialisations of the voluntary services’ personnel, contract of the voluntary services’ personnel),
7. financial records (resources and funding sources, balance sheet items from the recent years),
8. movable and immovable property,
9. seats and bed places.