ENFIA cuts for many owners

Hundreds of thousands of property owners are set to see their dues for this year’s Single Property Tax (ENFIA) clearance slashed as a result of the considerable drop in their incomes last year.

Personal enterprise owners, private sector employees whose contracts have been suspended and jobless workers saw their incomes plummet in 2020, thereby meeting the criterion for exemption from ENFIA as provided for by law.

According to the data from the processing of the 2020 ENFIA payment notes, 1,220,476 individuals were exempt last year from half or all of their dues on the grounds of their low incomes declared for 2019. This year the number of people eligible for having their property tax halved or waived will be considerably higher; roughly half a million individuals are set to be added this year to those benefiting from that legal provision.

According to the law, for property owners to have their ENFIA dues halved or waived they must fulfill the following criteria: The total taxable family income of the previous year must not exceed 9,000 euros, plus €1,000 per dependent member of each household, according to the tax declaration concerning the previous year. If spouses submit separate tax statements, the calculation is based on the highest number of children declared in the two statements.

A full exemption from the year’s ENFIA will be granted to families with three or more children and those that include individuals with disabilities of at least 80%. This has two eligibility criteria: The total net family income of the previous year should not be any more than €12,000, rising by €1,000 for each dependent member (including a spouse); the total area of the buildings owned by the household should also not exceed 150 square meters.

For example, a married salary worker with two dependent children and an annual taxable income of 2019 paid his ENFIA in full last year. However, in 2020, due to the suspension of operations by the company employing him that had him live on the special-purpose compensation, his taxable income dropped to €10,500, meaning he will pay half of last year’s ENFIA this year.