Greek company law, like many other continental European legal systems, is fundamentally characterized by the differentiation between partnerships and corporations, i.e. between OHG/KG on the one hand and GmbH/AG on the other.
Often the choice of a corporate form is shaped less by legal considerations than by tax incentives. In this respect, when choosing a corporate form, the tax side of the form in question must necessarily also be taken into account.
In the course of the development and modernization of legal systems, in order to be able to meet the requirements of practice, various reforms have also been undertaken in Greece which, in many respects, have led to an improvement in the options for selection and implementation.
Thus, not only time-consuming bureaucratic procedures have been reduced and the formation of a company made possible within a few days (the so-called one-stop shop procedure), but a new corporate form has also been created which has proven to be very efficient in practice. This refers to the private company, the so-called IKE, which combines legal and tax advantages in a flexible and practice-oriented corporate form. In addition, outdated publication procedures in the Government Gazette have been replaced by rapid register filings. The role of the chamber of commerce has thus also moved more strongly and centrally into focus in Greece.
These developments have created a better basis not only in terms of company law for implementing an investment, but in particular have also been able to reduce the costs for forming a corporation.
Overall, company law has seen further changes in recent years which were primarily intended to adapt outdated legislation to new market conditions.
At the beginning of an investment, however, the purpose of the enterprise must of course always be examined in order to take into account the case-specific needs of the project and the shareholders when choosing the vehicle. In addition to the aforementioned tax aspects, which in the course of tax reforms have now also been largely harmonized across most corporate forms, the choice of the corporate form is then to be made on this basis and by taking into account the particularities of the individual forms.