Filenews 18 January 2023 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
The first €3 million to support the refugee world ended up in the state coffers through the imposition of a 0.4% fee on real estate and share sales.
According to data obtained by "F", from November 18, when the law came into force, until December 31, 2022, the State received €3 million. An amount that will be allocated to the Equal Burden Sharing Body, which in turn will proceed to the financing of refugee support projects.
According to the law, in cases of transfer, pursuant to sale, of immovable property or shares of a company which is not listed on any recognized Stock Exchange and which directly or indirectly owns immovable property, a fee of 0.4% is paid by the seller for the sale of immovable property, on the sale price and for the sale of shares of a company, the immovable property, attributable to the shares sold.
At the same time, the Tax Department maintains a wait-and-see attitude, waiting for the data from the Land Registry in relation to property sales made from February 2021 to November 2022, to start imposing retroactively the 0.4% fee.
Essentially, the relevant department will go back to identify those who did real estate operations before the law was actually implemented, so as to impose the relevant fee. Something that the business world, particularly land developers and the Association of Banks, had disagreed with. It is estimated that around 43 km. persons bought real estate during the period in question, while the amount that the Agency would normally have to collect was around €15.6 million.
However, the 0.4% fee will not be accompanied by interest and charges, following a decision by the competent department. It is worth noting that, despite the provisions of the legislation, the Tax Commissioner will not initiate court proceedings to collect any amount due as a civil debt to the Republic from those who do not pay the 0.4% fee. It is recalled that on February 22, 2021, the Plenary Session of the Parliament had approved a legislative regulation for the imposition of the 0.4% fee on sellers of real estate, who in turn pass it on to buyers. For 20 months the legislation was inactive, as the competent Authority that would collect the relevant fee on the sales of real estate and shares had not been determined. Finally, last November, a government bill was approved, which establishes the Tax Commissioner as the competent Authority, to collect the 0.4% fee from the sale of real estate and shares.
