Personal real property tax revenue increased significantly

The real property taxes paid in the first half of this year by private individuals in municipalities and towns totaled 19 million lei, as against 3.7 million lei in the corresponding period last year. The individuals in municipalities and towns have paid the tax on real property at its market value since 2007. Igor Turcanu, division head at the State Main Tax Inspectorate, told Info-Prim Neo that the new methodology for calculating and paying the real property tax was introduced in 2007. “As the program was new, many bills contained errors. Besides, many tax payers could not orient and did not manage to pay the real property tax beforehand so as to benefit from 15% reductions. The State Main Tax Inspectorate prolonged the term for paying in advance the real property tax by a month and a half, until August 15, but the situation has not changed essentially. This year, the notifications for payment have been distributed beforehand and many tax payers paid the tax until June 30 and benefited from a reduction of 15%,” he said. Turcanu also said that the sum of taxes on apartments and houses that occupy an area of over 100 square meters paid beforehand rose by about 2 million lei, to approximately 10 million lei. The private individuals in other settlements of the country, besides municipalities and towns, where the real property has not been yet appraised for taxation purposes, paid real property taxes of 5.7 million lei in advance. The land taxes paid by the individuals from all the settlements in advance totaled 8.8 million lei, approximately the same amount as in the first half of last year. For the payments in advance, the individuals benefited from reductions on real property taxes of 5.2 million lei, as opposed to 3.2 million lei last year. The taxpayers that did not manage to pay the tax on real estate in advance can honor their fiscal obligations in the second payment stage until October, but will not benefit from reductions. The other settlements of the country, except the municipalities and towns, will shift to the methodology of calculating and paying the tax on real estate at the market value after the Agency for Land Relations and Cadastre assesses the lands and houses in rural areas for taxation. The process is set to be completed by 2011.