Million Greeks face property tax hike
Single property tax (ENFIA) notifications are to be posted online by August 31, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) said on Thursday.
Calculated according to new objective values (property prices used for tax purposes) announced in June, this year’s ENFIA charges will be higher for around 1 million property owners and lower for about 1.5 million owners, while the bills for the remaining 4 million property owners will be the same as last year.
The government had been hoping for a postponement of the property tax notifications until after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s scheduled appearance at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) on September 8, when he is to unveil his government’s economic policy for the following year.
Over the years of the crisis, Greek prime ministers’ annual appearances at TIF have met with anti-austerity protests and there are fears that this year will be no different.
The government’s hopes for a reprieve with the notifications were frustrated, however, as the IAPR decided to inform taxpayers of their dues a month before the deadline for payment of the first installment, as is normally the case.
The changes to objective property values introduced in June affected 10,216 zones across the country. Objective values dropped in 2,122 of these zones, while they increased in 3,792 (about 37 percent of property zones across the country). In 4,302 zones, the objective values remain the same.
As a result of the changes, 946,671 property owners are to face higher ENFIA charges this year. Of those owners, 737,709 will face a relatively small increase of between 1 and 50 euros, 160,001 will see a hike of between 50 and 200 euros, and 46,891 will be called upon to pay an additional 200 euros.
Meanwhile, 1.4 million property owners will receive a smaller ENFIA bill. Of those owners, 351,090 will see a reduction in charges of between 50 and 100 euros, 213,483 will see a decrease of 100 to 500 euros, and 13,357 people will see their ENFIA bill drop by more than 500 euros.
For 3.9 million property owners, ENFIA bills will remain unchanged from last year.
