The town of Vsetín will increase the real estate tax on commercial chains operating in the town from next year. The reason for this is the high traffic load and related costs of the town. The new wording of the general binding decree, which sets the coefficients for calculating the property tax, was approved yesterday by Vsetín councillors. The decree will be valid from the beginning of next year. The maximum coefficient of five will apply to retail chains, while the local coefficient will remain at two in other areas of the city. After the changes, the city’s revenues should increase by an estimated CZK 6 million.
The property tax is a revenue for municipalities, which can also adjust its amount. The Constitutional Court confirmed in July that municipalities can impose higher taxes on specific business properties, such as factory sites that produce noise, pollution and other negative impacts.
“We have decided to increase the local coefficient, and therefore the property tax, to a value of five in those areas of Vsetín where large commercial chains operate. Customers from all over the region come to shop there, and this increases the traffic load in these areas and the related costs for the town,” said Mayor Jiří Čunek (KDU-ČSL). In other areas of the city, the local coefficient will remain at the current value of two.
Councillors also approved an increase in the property tax coefficient based on population from 2 to 2.5. “For citizens who are paying a lower tax this year, this means that the tax amount will return to the level of 2022,” said Martina Čermáková, head of the city’s finance department.
The city also newly sets the coefficient at 1.5 for types of buildings that are not subject to the coefficient according to the number of inhabitants, i.e. buildings for family recreation and their accessories, garages and buildings used for business. Vsetín thus follows 70 percent of other municipalities of similar size that have introduced this coefficient, Čermáková said.
The management of Valašské Meziříčí in the Vsetín region is also planning to increase the property tax on large retail chains in the town to a maximum of five. It could bring four to five million crowns a year to the town’s coffers, the town’s mayor Robert Stržínek (ANO) said earlier.
The tax on residential properties is calculated according to the built-up area, and land is taxed separately. The tax base per square metre is two crowns for residential properties. This base is then multiplied by coefficients – local and size.
Source: CTK
