The government wants to adopt in Q3 of this year a draft amendment to the Agricultural Tax Act and other local tax acts, which removes the possibility of exempting from property tax land, buildings and structures included in the infrastructure of a cargo terminal, as well as those not used by research institutes, and introduces mandatory taxation of multi-stand garages, according to the list of legislative and programme works of the Council of Ministers.
The purpose of the proposed solutions is:
– to seek to preserve, as far as possible, the fiscal status quo,
– to ensure that the tax provisions defining a structure and a building as an object of property taxation are specified,
– eliminating the risk of the impact of changes in the construction law or other laws on the subject of real estate taxation,
– the possibility of taking into account the existing body of rulings of administrative courts in a subsidiary manner
The draft provides for changes in agricultural tax, property tax, forestry tax, spa tax and stamp duty. Among other things, the proposed amendment is aimed at eliminating interpretation doubts concerning the current regulations and clarifying the current regulations in order to apply them correctly.
In order to standardise the taxation of multi-bay garages located in residential buildings, it is proposed to recognise a multi-bay garage in a residential building as a residential part of such a building. As a result of this change, the property tax rate will apply to the taxation of a separate multi-bay garage in a residential building.
The draft includes a provision to exclude the application of the property tax exemption for railway infrastructure in respect of land, buildings and structures forming part of a freight terminal.
A provision has also been reinstated that provides for exemption from property tax for buildings and structures on the area of parts of airfields for public use, and as regards land, only that part of it which is occupied by these buildings and structures. The previous regulation – as indicated in the list – had no substantive, but only fiscal justification.
The purpose of the proposed amendment is also to limit the scope of the subjective exemption of research institutes from property tax, so that institutes will be covered by the exemption only with respect to real property or parts thereof occupied for research activities. This is intended to eliminate the possibility of research institutes benefiting from the tax exemption in cases where real estate or parts thereof are not used for the performance of their primary tasks and are made commercially available to other entities. A similar solution is to apply to forest areas.
The draft also includes provisions enabling the imposition of an obligation on health resort fee collectors to keep records of persons obliged to pay the fee.
Source: ISBnews
