Third of rental losses covered
The state will cover only a third of landlords’ losses from the 40% rent reduction for tenants who were hurt professionally by the coronavirus measures.
Deputy Finance Minister Thodoros Skylakakis told ANT1 TV on Thursday that the government will undertake 33% of the rental takings property owners have missed out on since the start of the lockdown in March, so that they do not feel unprotected. “We will calculate the money lost from every property rent and we will return a third of it,” he stated.
The regulation to that effect will be tabled in Parliament within the next few days, and will provide for the reduction of the tax dues from the affected landlords in the year’s second half equal to a third of their lost revenues from commercial or residential properties, as Minister Christos Staikouras has said. There will be no restrictions on the kind of tax obligations to be offset that way.
The total burden the state will shoulder as a result of the measure is an estimated 70 million euros, which means that landlords are expected to miss out on more than €200 million in rental revenues. Sources say priority will be given to income tax dues as of July, and if a further amount of losses needs to be offset it will then be covered by the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) and other taxes.
Property owners will have to submit a declaration of losses so that the Independent Authority for Public Revenue can proceed immediately with offsetting the tax dues of each landlord.
There has been an angry reaction from the Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners (POMIDA) to that news, as it has accused the government of mocking landlords even though it was supposed to restore their rights when it came to power.
“Instead of introducing a rent subsidy where it is really needed, owners are seeing the extension of the same ‘openhandedness’ at their expense, with no end in sight, and without any substantial offsetting measures for them, as they are treated as scapegoats or second-class citizens,” read the POMIDA statement released on Thursday.
