Property taxes increased eightfold in five years

The budget for 2014, which was tabled in parliament Friday, gave important information on the increase of property tax. It showed that taxes this year will rise to 2.78 billion euros from 526 million in 2009 and will increase further in 2014, even over 3.9 billion euros.

Speaking at an event of Patras Property Owners Association POMIDA (Hellenic Property Federation) president Stratos Paradias said that from January 1st the government will implement a series of new burdensome measures for owners and those who buy or sell property, such as tax statement based on the unrealistic objective values that continue to apply, the capital gains tax etc.

The POMIDA president said these crippling charges introduced in previous years as supposed extra levy on owners, are fixed with the abortional and unconstitutional bill for the establishment of the Single Property Tax recently presented by the Finance Ministry to be implemented by 2014. He added that despite all these, property owners are deprived of the possibility to delegate part of their property to the State in order to avoid the risk of imprisonment for their debts to it.

Professor Dionysius Chionis, Department of International Economic Relations of the Democritus University / University of Thrace and vice president of the POMIDA Board, said the property market is an integral part of economic growth and that fiscal approach to the issues of property removes any developmental contribution. "Besides the development contribution, the tax treatment of property involves the element of unfair tax burden as the total property contribution between 2009 and 2012 has quadrupled."

Lawyer Efstathios Mpakalis, POMIDA and DSA (Athens Bar Association) tax adviser, said the possibilities of judicial protection for owners who fail to meet their tax obligations is very limited. He added that in other European countries such as Germany and France, the courts have ruled that there can be no ownership tax on property without income criteria, in contrast to the decision of the Greek State Council for the PPC hike.