Adjustment in store for rental income rates

Tax rates for conventional property rental revenues are set for an adjustment, provided the Finance Ministry makes a calculation of the cost of its interventions for the next few years. At the focus of attention is the medium bracket of incomes that incurs a particularly high tax rate of 35 percent.

Incomes from real estate utilization are taxed separately from other incomes today, with takings up to 12,000 euros incurring a tax of 15 percent, those between 12,001 and 35,000 euros a 35 percent rate and any income topping 35,000 being saddled with 45 percent tax bill.

The ministry now intends to bring the second tax rate down from 35 percent to 25 or even 20 percent. If the cost of that interventions appears prohibitive, the change will be postponed until 2021.

In total, the owners of leased properties declared rental incomes of 6.107 billion euros for 2017, after declaring 6.192 billion euros for the year before; this means that their declared rental incomes shrank by 85 million euros within a year.

Tax on property has soared by 600 percent since 2010, while property incomes have shrunk by 32 percent over the same period.