Online monitoring of realty
As of September, the database of the land registry will communicate with that of the tax office
The long delay in connecting the land registry with the tax office has created a distorted picture, as the tax office does not know who exactly owns each property or its actual square footage.
In many cases one number of square meters appears for an asset in the land register and another is declared at the tax office. An attempt will be made to change this problem from September, through the new electronic application for recording and monitoring the properties of the whole country, specifically through the Property Ownership and Management Register, which will include the elements of the electronic “property log” that the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) has created based on the E9 declarations of individuals and corporations.
Of course, the discrepancies will be ironed out only by the interconnection of the two systems. Although the land registry and the tax office should already have been connected, this was not possible, and now, with the new leadership of the Ministry of Digital Governance, and specifically with Deputy Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis, the implementation of the project is being attempted from scratch.
The register will also concern real estate tenants as it will include information on the properties, such as whether they are leased or let for free, the amounts of monthly and annual rents, and details of the tenants.
The file, by design, will be automatically updated each time a rental information statement is submitted by a property owner and accepted by the tenant of the same property. It will also be automatically updated every time an owner declares the termination of the lease of a property.
At the same time, the register will be linked to the electronic file of the income tax returns of taxpayers and enterprises so that the incomes obtained by the owners from the utilization of their real estate are pre-filled by the AADE in forms E1 and E2 of their tax returns, while the expenses of tenants for rent payments will be pre-filled in their own E1 forms.
