However justified taxes on real estate may be considered, when they are used in excess to cover increased fiscal needs – like what is currently going on in Greece – they lead to madness.

Particularly in a real estate market that is dying on its knees, like the Greek one, where virtually nothing is happening. So on top of all the taxes on property, a new tax was introduced at the start of the year which will further burden everyone who is trying to sell their house in order to survive.

This is surplus value tax on real estate which the government may have legislated, but which the public notaries are called upon to implement and collect. That, however, is impossible, since the law states that they must collect a tax on the difference between the acquisition value and the sale value, which cannot be less than the current objective values established by the tax authorities.

Due to the financial crisis everybody knows that in 9 out of 10 property transactions (including the privileged areas in all urban areas and islands), the market values have collapsed and are significantly lower than the objective values. So how is it possible to implement a surplus value tax when there is no surplus value, but rather the complete opposite – sellers, for their own reasons have to sell off property well-bellow the acquisition value?

In a market that has come to a complete halt it is madness to further burden it with even more taxes. Especially when everyone – experts or not – admit that the objective values currently in place are unrealistic and that the few transactions that keep the market afloat typically involve much lower values than the objective ones.

In the current economic climate, it is madness to introduce a surplus value tax that under different financial circumstances may be justified. Today however it burdens tax payers excessively and is urging them to sell off their property just to survive or be able to pay more taxes.

Since the government is not considering reducing the objective values, due to its commitments, it should at least postpone the surplus value tax for better days, since the expected revenue is expected to be very little…

TO VIMA