High court rules against Church of Greece over taxed income from leased urban properties

A trio of Council of State (CoS) rulings this week rejected an appeal by the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece requesting that it be excluded from paying taxes on income generated from the leasing of properties in urban areas.

The Church requested a return of 2.9 million euros in taxes paid for income generated by the properties over the 2011-2013 period.

The influential and constitutionally protected Church of Greece had taken recourse to the CoS, Greece’s highest administrative court, to partially overturn a tax bureau decision obliging it to pay 18 million euros in taxes for the period.

The appeal also requested that income declared for 164 urban properties be recognized as tax-free.