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28th March 2024
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HomeNewsImmovable Property Tax headaches

Immovable Property Tax headaches

immovable property taxTHE INLAND Revenue Department has announced that it will start sending out Immovable Property Tax notices to property owners at the end of August to pay their annual property tax imposed as part of the bailout memorandum.

A spokesman from the Inland Revenue said that owners who pay by the end of October will receive a 15% discount on the amount due; those who pay after the end of October will pay the full amount, but a 10% surcharge and interest will be imposed on those who delay paying until after 30 November.

The spokesman added that a provision in the law stating that the occupant of unregistered property is liable to pay the tax is causing a major headache for Inland Revenue staff. This is due to the fact that the law also states that the property developer is still liable to pay the tax if he is responsible for failing to provide the purchaser with the property’s Title Deed, which has to be proved by the buyer.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Nigel

    My property is jointly owned with my ex hence the POA I would love to get this sorted on my own :-(

  2. Let’s say there are no deeds on a project due to a delay of the developer or even the town planning dept etc & burden wrongly dumped on buyers.

    Buyers homes were built on a common plot of land that is encumbered (land is still registered in developers name, and was used as colateral to secure his buyer loans with bank) one of the buyers on the plot does not keep up payments and has been sent to bank recoveries dept…In essence bank may force sale of all the homes sitting on plot which was used as security…which means no deed for any buyer, irrespective of the fact that some may have paid in full.

    Will the buyers still be responsible for the tax throughout this mess of a process of forced re-sales(of course ensuring one does not lose a property they paid in full for should be the priority, but seems impossible to prove you have been mis-sold a property by developer) but I am curious.

  3. My deeds are ready and I would dearly love to pay this tax but it’s like extracting teeth. I’m in the UK and will never return to Cyprus so sadly don’t have the luxury of being able to walk into an office and simply pay. My solicitor is next to useless but I can’t change him as a power of attorney is in place.

    I know I’ve said it before but I rue the day I ever brought out there and would never recommend doing so to anyone. The island is never going to sort itself out whilst all this stupidity persists. Grief we moan about life in the UK but it certainly has it’s pluses

    • @Caroline on 2014/08/27 at 2:52 pmYou can revoke your Power of Attorney and either:

      (a) deal with the matter yourself or

      (b) appoint a decent lawyer to act on your behalf.

  4. Hi All

    I went and paid my IPT for 2014 yesterday, and was very much given the impression that if you do receive your IPT demand by post you will be the very lucky ones. If you really want the 15% discount I would get down there now and pay and don’t wait for them to send (Oh yes straight in and paid all done is less than 10 mins, Aug my friend.

    And before you get the idea that I am a full supporter of this robing TAX, far from it. I have paid because its a very small amount, but next year if there are NO considerable changes to the banding % then I will have no other option, as a pensioner, than to default and accept that prison could become my way of life. Don’t believe me, watch this space.

    Phil

  5. @ Nigel

    If the contract of sale has a “Set Date” for receiving the title deeds then I would expect the developer to be ‘pro-active’ to ensure those dates are complied with.

    After all my contract (like many) had set dates for payments to be made, my excuse it was raining and I could be bothered to make it to the bank, wouldn’t be a logical reason, so what logical reason would he give?

    A contract is binding and works both ways. It places obligations on me with regard to payment, but also on him as the other party.

    I would ask what has my developer done to comply with his obligations under the contract? After all he has a working knowledge of the language and customs of Cyprus.

    So I would expect detailed action taken by him to ensure compliance. So I would want to see written records. Pro-active actions on his part. Who he spoke to at land registry, on what dates and the results. Escalating the problem to a supervisor if there was a delay. I would expect to be kept in the loop, before the cut off date, not just left hanging wondering what was happening.

    I would expect my developer to explain to me where my application for title deeds were in the scheme at the Land Registry. Because he will know. If not why not?

    Anything less and his is negligent, in breach of contract and liable to pay the IPT through his negligence.

  6. No problem with proving who is responsible for the delay.

    I had a clause in my contract stating that the deeds would be provided “Within two and half years”.

    End of clause. So Its not my fault. Nothing further to prove.

    The developer wouldn’t have signed the contact if this wasn’t possible.

    • @Peter Davis on 2014/08/22 at 1:32 pm – Although I agree that the delay is not your fault, that does not necessarily mean it’s the fault of the developer.

      The delay could be caused by the Planning Authority and/or the Land Registry (that is currently ploughing though a huge backlog of applications).

  7. Well, that’s what we geet when we try to have our cake and eat it too. Lawyers formulated and laid down both of these laws. Guess who will benefit from the tsunami of legal actions resulting from the conflict? and their friends the developer is absolved of all responsibility – nice, well done all involved, absolute genius.

    And as for passing legal responsibility (burden of proof) onto the buyer (victim) from the developer (culprit) – priceless! Absolute brilliance, bare faced but brilliant. Assuming it is accepted like lambs to the slaughter.

  8. Well here we go again ….. I like many have been asking my developer for my title deeds for a long while now. But as per normal all they refer to is the government for the excuse not to provide them to me.

    “we are waiting clarity” is a normal reply.

    Mean while they neglect to complete the development as originally promised on our sale conditions I.e. the road in and the completion of the government green areas. and they fail to carry out any needed work on the drains/sewage system.

    In short they cant be bothered and by that are failing to complete and provide the title as per agreement of sale.

    The government are probably scheming to change the law in favour of the developer as we speak ?

  9. But if the property developer is due to pay the tax and doesn’t aren’t the outstanding taxes going to further prevent the transfer of title deeds! So now, no one pays the IPT

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