Extension for realty transfers
Existing tax status for sales, parental concessions and donations to be prolonged by a month
Property transfers concerning sales, donations or parental concessions will be conducted early next year using the current taxable rates, known as “objective values,” provided that the necessary property transfer tax declaration has been submitted by the end of this year, according to an amendment set to reach Parliament over the next few days. The existing objective values are set to be adjusted to match market rates from January 2022.
The only question left open is how long the Finance Ministry extension will be. Sources say the government is considering accepting all transfers whose property transfer tax declarations have been submitted by December 31 up until the ensd of January.
In order to deal with the huge demand by taxpayers scrambling to make their transactions and to make the most of the more favorable tax conditions, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue is expected to open the online MyProperty platform also for the electronic submission of parental concessions and donations.
Later on, during the course of next year, the online platform for electronic property transactions will also cover cases of inheritances and cash donations, so that capital taxation procedures become 100% electronic.
Over the last few weeks thousands of buyers and sellers have inundated notary offices, property registrars and municipal authorities in a bid to submit their documents in time and benefit from the relatively lower transaction costs ahead of the application of the new objective values; they will show a significant rise in zone rates, affecting 55% of zones. However, due to the pandemic not everyone is able to visit the offices they need to, meaning many buyers and sellers are being hampering from completing their transfers or parental concessions.
A similar extension was also granted 16 years ago, in December 2005, when then finance minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis had extended the property transfer tax status of the time until February 28, 2006, for all citizens to get an equal chance to have their transaction processed according to the same tax regime.
