EFKA (Greece’s Unified Social Security Fund) is set to refund up to €500 from the special employment levy to 150,000 eligible pensioners and workers who are simultaneously employed as salaried workers and self-employed professionals, and were charged an inflated special employment levy beyond the cap set by law. According to audits conducted by EFKA to date, the primary beneficiaries of these refunds are working pensioners who were simultaneously active as salaried employees and professionals — such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants — and were subject to a double deduction of the special levy when only a single charge should have applied.
Read more: Retroactive payments up to €13,500 for 400,000 pensioners: New wave of EFKA payments in August and September
The special employment levy
The refund will cover the excess amount paid above the statutory cap on the special employment levy — which is set equal to the national pension amount at the time — and will be processed through an online application submitted to EFKA for the automatic settlement of the levy withheld from working pensioners for the year 2024. Since the settlement concerns the EFKA employment levy for 2024, the reference figure for determining refund amounts will be last year’s national pension, which stood at €427.16. Working pensioners who paid more than €427.16 per month toward the special employment levy in the previous year will receive a refund for any amount paid above €426.17.
For example, if a pensioner had dual insurance coverage for seven months in 2024 — as both a salaried employee and a self-employed professional — and paid a total employment levy of €500 per month, they must submit an application through EFKA’s new online platform. They would then receive a refund of €73 per month (the excess above the national pension threshold at the time) for those seven months, amounting to a total refund of €411 in special employment levy contributions.
Working pensioners may submit an annual settlement and refund application for any overpaid amounts from the special employment levy that exceeded the statutory cap. Access to the application is provided via TAXISnet credentials and AMKA (Social Security Number) declaration. No supporting documents or in-person visits to EFKA offices are required, as all necessary data is automatically retrieved from the registry of working pensioners’ declarations.
Offsetting refunds against outstanding debts to EFKA
If the audit reveals confirmed outstanding contribution debts owed by working pensioners, any refund of excess special levy payments will be processed only after offsetting the refundable amounts against those verified debts to EFKA. The employment levy is calculated at 10% of salary for those working as salaried employees, and at 50% of the monthly pension insurance contribution for the self-employed. Those who are simultaneously salaried and self-employed are subject to a double levy for each activity. The cap on the special employment levy is set at the current national pension amount, regardless of the number of professional activities held.
Extra contributions for a larger lump-sum payout for 100,000 permanent civil servants
The e-EFKA is set to seek retroactive lump-sum benefit contributions for the period from 2017 to 2019 from at least 100,000 insured employees working under indefinite private-law contracts (IDAX) in the public sector and public legal entities, as they fall under the provisions of the former Public Employees Welfare Fund (TPDY). The collection of contributions also applies to staff of Commercial, Industrial, Professional, and Craft Chambers, as well as transferred employees from the former Local Unions of Municipalities and Communities of Greece (TEDK).
According to a document issued by the insurance fund, the specific insurance contribution is set at 4% from January 1, 2017, for those insured after 1993. The document clarifies the method for calculating insurance contributions, maintaining a different framework for old insured individuals (those insured before January 1, 1993) and new insured individuals. For the former group, the special provisions of each former welfare sector continue to apply, while for the latter, the contribution from January 1, 2017 stands at 4% of insurable earnings — as defined by e-EFKA legislation — up to the applicable maximum insurable ceiling.
EFKA has issued specific instructions for reporting lump-sum benefit insurance coverage in the Analytical Periodic Declaration (APD) relating to the Lump-Sum Benefits Branch (Welfare). The insurance fund clarifies that the lump-sum benefits branch must now be declared under a separate entry with a distinct code, different from those used for other insurance branches such as main pension, healthcare, and supplementary insurance. Specific Activity Codes, Specialty Codes, and Coverage Package Codes (KPK) are assigned for each category of insured individuals to ensure correct and uniform application of the relevant provisions.
The fund further notes that retroactive submission of supplementary APDs exclusively for the lump-sum benefits branch is required for the period from January 1, 2017 onward. This process may be carried out without the imposition of fines or other penalties until December 31, 2026, by which date the corresponding insurance contributions must also have been paid, provided they have not already been remitted.
The general circular also includes detailed instructions for public sector agencies, public legal entities, local government bodies, and chambers of commerce regarding the process of submitting data for the payroll periods covering 2017–2019. These entities are called upon to submit consolidated records of contributions already remitted, accompanied by the necessary supporting documentation, in order to facilitate accurate reconciliation of payments with APD declarations.
Originally published in the newspaper “Apogevmatini.”
