First
homes to be exempted from tax
But the merging of the multitude of property levies
is part of plan to more than triple revenues
P. HATZINIKOLAOU
First-time home buyers will be exempted from taxes,
except municipal rates, for residences up to 250 square
meters, Deputy Finance Minister Antonis Bezas said
yesterday.
“There will be a ceiling of 250 sq.m. that will
be exempted from taxation, which will be increased
by 25 sq.m. for every child after the third,”
he told a press briefing at Alpha radio station.
Bezas said the single property tax will be paid for
the first time in 2008, replacing a multitude of existing
levies, including the inheritance and parental transfer
taxes.
“These taxes will be abolished. The present
tax-free ceiling will be retained, above which the
single property tax will be 1 percent. This will include
relatives of the first and second degree. These provisions
will be included in the bill on fuel taxation and
distribution, to be tabled within 10 days at most,”
he said.
Separately, Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis
said one day after the tabling of the 2008 budget
that the new provisions expanded the property tax
base.
“Of the additional revenue of –6 billion
envisioned in the budget, –4 billion is not
new taxes but taxes that are due on higher incomes.
“The remaining 2 billion in new taxes we have
calculated will come from fighting tax evasion, particularly
from the plan to equalize the automotive and heating
diesel taxes.
“The rest will come primarily from property
taxation, which will be expanded, and from a widening
of the tax base,” he told Skai Radio in an interview.
The budget draft provides for total property tax revenues
of –900 million, up 275 percent from this year’s
projected –240 million.
Asked if his colleagues’ understanding had improved
now, after the tabling of the budget compared to their
demands before, he said, “This is a universal
phenomenon in all countries before the budget is tabled.”
“It is logical for every ministry and minister
to want ever greater budget credits, but in the end
the government, through collective processes, arrives
at a budget draft which reflects its priorities as
a whole,” Alogoskoufis said.
Finally, he said the government will probably introduce
the new, revised, table of official property values
for tax purposes in the spring.
