General Partnership in Greece

After many challenging years, Greek economy is slowly gaining its pace with a decreasing unemployment and a birth of many startups. Despite the crisis, a lot of tech entrepreneurs stayed in Greece and are continuously working on innovative business models. One of the ways through which entrepreneurs start their business in Greece is through a General Partnership. A General Partnership also called as Omorthymos Eteria (OE) is a type of business entity in which all the partners are jointly liable for the debts of the partnership without limitation in the liability. The parties can determine who will participate in the management of the partnership and may agree on the way profits and losses are to be shared. In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, all partners have a right to perform management practices and partners share profits and losses equally.

Features of a General Partnership in Greece

There should be minimum two partners whose liability is unlimited
No minimum share capital requirement
The company registration of General Partnership is done at “One-Stop-Shop”, unlike an LLC
The OE can have both active partner and a sleeping partner where the liability of the sleeping partner is limited to the amount of contribution
The affairs of the partnership are handled by one or more administrators

How to Set Up a General Partnership in Greece?

Unlike a Limited Liability Company, a General Partnership does not need an Articles of Association of the partnership signed before a Notary Public and may take the form of private agreement. General Partnership is established through One-Stop-Shop authorities and their Articles of Association are filed with the General Commercial Registry.

The Articles of Association must contain the following details of the shareholders:

Name and residence of the partners, and their capacity
Company name [it is prohibited to include the limited partner’s name in the company name]
Names of managers and representatives [only general partners may be managers or representatives]
Type and value of contributions
Duration of the company
Purposes of the company
State explicitly the type of company as a limited partnership company

The document must be signed by all the partners. Further, the company must submit a set of documents to the one-stop-shop authorities:

1. Documents for Founders Who Are Natural Persons

National Identity card for Greek citizens
Identity card or passport for citizens of EU member states and passport for citizens of non-EU member states and resident permit
Completed application form for a Tax Identification Number/Change of Personal details and Declaration of Taxpayer’s Relations form, if required in order for the founders to acquire a Tax Identification Number (TIN), if they do not have one
Residence permit for the exercise of an independent financial activity of non-EU members

2. Documents for Founders Who Are Resident Legal Persons

Copy of company’s codified Articles of Association
Authorization that bears the authenticated signature of the company’s legal representative

3. Documents for Founders Who Are Foreign Legal Persons

Articles of Association that bear an Apostilled, i.e., officially translated or certified by the consulate if the country of origin has not signed the convention
Certification by a competent authority of the legal person’s country of residence to verify the existence of the company
Certified copy of the authorization document which appoints the legal representative in Greece

The one-stop-shop normally takes 4-5 days to complete the authentication process and approve your company registration.

Once the registration is done, you are good to kick-start your business in Greece. Now, there can be few legal procedures that you may not be aware of due to less knowledge about the framework. At this point, you can take help of an advisor who will guide you through this incorporation process. We at Business Setup Worldwide will help you start a business in Greece. Feel free to contact us today, even if it’s for a friendly advice.