Cost to drop for property transactions, inheritances, etc.

Property transactions will become less costly as of April, as far as the tax load is concerned, in areas where “objective values” – property rates used for tax purposes – are reduced. The Finance Ministry is planning to make no changes to all tax rates related to sales, parental concessions, donations and inheritance.

The new objective values will go into force upon publication, so as to avoid any tax rebates for contracts signed since the start of the year. Allowances will only be made for this year’s Single Property Tax (ENFIA) so that it is calculated according to the new zone rates.

The ENFIA rates will be altered so as to cover any fiscal gap created by the reduction of the objective values, while plans also include a possible replacement of the “personal exemption ceiling” for the supplementary property tax with a “family exemption ceiling.” This means that the combined assets of parents and their dependents will be added up and taxed as a total. The scheme would expand the number of property owners paying the supplementary tax and meet the bailout program’s demand for the expansion of the tax base.

In the more expensive areas of Attica, where zone rates are expected to drop by 10-15 percent or more in some cases, the decline to the tax on parental concessions and donations will be considerable. For instance, for a property whose current objective value stands at 250,000 euros, a zone rate decline of 15 percent (taking the objective value to 212,500 euros) would bring the tax from 1,000 euros to 625 euros.

The Finance Ministry has already calculated that its takings from inheritance taxes, donations and parental concessions will be significantly decreased this year compared to 2017. Taxes and levies from inheritance are projected to fetch 74 million euros, down from 97 million last year; parental concession and donation taxes are seen to bring just 40 million from 52 million in 2017; and transaction taxes are expected to lead to almost the same revenues as last year (196 million euros), as the losses from the reduction of the objective values are going to be offset by the anticipated increase in transactions. The transaction tax rate will remain at 3 percent.