ENFIA stumbles on farm calculation

The process for the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) has stalled, as to date the Finance Ministry has not managed to find a way to calculate the value of farms, which according to a recent law will be added to the assets factored in for the supplementary property tax.

Competent ministry officials tell Kathimerini that they have received certain guidelines to start the supplementary tax calculation tests, but the formula to do so has not yet been found.

The officials will first have to establish whether the amount emerging from the tests can be seen as realistic or is excessive, as well as whether ENFIA will bring in the revenues agreed with the country’s creditors, before a ministerial decision is issued regarding how the value of the farms will be calculated. The tests are set to begin next week and the results will be delivered to the minister for the final decisions to be made.

Property market professionals say that a complex process is used in the current system for the evaluation of land outside town-planning zones, by calculating the basic value of land, its plot value in case a building of at least 15 square meters is on it, and the potential of its further utilization.

If all that is taken into account, though, the supplementary tax will soar for millions of farm owners. The biggest problem will concern farmers who use small buildings outside town-planning zones in their work. At the same time, anyone who owns even a small piece of farmland will have to pay a much higher tax than in previous years.

However, ministry officials point out that, in this way, the state will finally be able to impose a tax on villas on Myconos that are built on plots outside town-planning zones and which to date have only set their taxpaying owners back a handful of euros in property tax each year.

The supplementary tax concerns property owners whose assets add up to at least 200,000 euros, down from 300,000 euros in 2015. Its rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 1.15 percent.

The ENFIA payment slips are now expected to be uploaded on the internet by the end of August, and the first installment will be payable by end-September. The last of the five installments will then be due by end-January 2017.