ETAK property tax on the way for 200,000 owners

The government plans to raise 70 million euros by the end of May as the Finance Ministry is sending out its first batch of 200,000 notifications for the Single Property Tax (ETAK) that it failed to collect in 2009.

The ETAK tax is a 0.1 percent levy on properties whose objective value is set at over 100,000 euros (if the owner is unmarried) and over 200,000 euros (if there are two owners who are married).

Half of the notifications that will be sent out within the next few weeks are for under 27 euros, which means they do not need to be paid, though the other half are expected to bring in 70 million euros in revenues. The deadline for payments is end-May.

Overall property taxes are expected to add up to 4 billion euros this year, through the pending ETAK for 2009, the Property Tax (that replaced ETAK) for 2010 and 2011, the extra property charge paid via electricity bills and an additional levy on property valued at 400,000 euros and over in 2009.