MPs are set to vote on amendments to the law at the plenary session of the House on 17th January, but the government has yet to submit a revised set of proposals for their consideration.
KSIA also questioned why a decision on the new system had to be taken so urgently as any new tax regime would not be implemented until September and that “the immediate signing” of the EU bailout agreement was “doubtful”.
The island’s Interior Minister, Eleni Mavrou, repeated that that the government is making every effort to avoid taxing the average home owner, such as those with a house on half a building plot or a large apartment.
“If the €40,000 threshold based on the values of 1980 is finally adopted we more or less maintain the groups included in the existing law and increase the number of contributors,” she said.
(Immovable Property Tax, which is based on the Land Registry’s assessment of the 1980 value of a property, is a confusing concept to most foreigners as it has no parallel in other EU countries. At the present time, the majority of registered property owners are exempt as the 1980 value of their property falls below the €120,000 threshold at which this annual tax becomes payable.)