ENFIA’s complex equation
The recommendations of property surveyors for major hikes in the zone rates will undergo extensive scrutiny by the government, whose top objective is for the majority of owners to pay less than, or at least the same toward their Single Property Tax (ENFIA) next year as this year.
The draft budget provides for the collection of about 2.6 billion euros in 2021 from all property taxes.
The Finance Ministry is aware that the expansion of the system calculating property prices for tax purposes – known as objective values – to more areas, the increase in zone rates as proposed and the declaration of hundreds of thousands of square meters of properties settled during 2020 will lead to additional taxable material of at least €100 billion.
This stock can be used to finance the ENFIA discounts, which also affect the supplementary tax on large properties, and lead to a drop in ENFIA dues even in areas where the zone rates will see a 20 percent hike.
Through that cocktail of measures, which will favor mainly those with small properties, it is certain that owners with assets in areas with a reduction or no change in their zone rates will pay less ENFIA next year, along with those where zone rates will rise by up to 10%-15%.
The owners set to pay more will constitute a minority. They will be those with assets in areas to endure zone rate hikes of more than 30%, justified by the specifics of each area. Their list will include particularly popular areas such as tourism destinations that are currently undervalued in tax terms mainly because to date they have been kept out of the objective value determination system.
The entire ENFIA construction for 2021 will require plenty of preparation so as to match the new ENFIA discount rates with the adjusted objective values and the ownership brackets.
To achieve the desired result, the entire package of interventions will be activated after June 2021 – i.e. very close to the time when next year’s ENFIA will be calculated.
