ACCORDING to the Department of Lands and Surveys some 262,300 individuals who registered their properties with fake identification documents own properties with a 1980 value of €1.66 billion.
Out of those 262,300 individuals, 36,500 own property whose 1980 value exceeds €12,500 and should therefore be paying Immovable Property Tax.
The Tax Department and the Department of Lands has managed to track down approximately 10,000 tax dodgers, but the Tax Department is reported to be struggling to track down the remaining 36,500.
In addition to significant losses in state revenue, local authorities are losing out as property owners who cannot be identified also avoid paying local property taxes and sewerage charges.
Isn’t there a discount if they don’t pay until much later?
Only the honest should pay full wack.
Absolutely disgusting !! These people are also robbing the people who have already paid their dues.
The same applies to the people who have claimed VAT back on their property purchases and do not live in the houses they have claimed back the tax!! And not living in the properties and letting to third parties or holiday lets this needs investigation!! And the monies returned!! It must run into millions of euros that Cyprus can ill afford!!
Cyprus will never get back financially with all this illegal tax dodging going on!!!
DISGUSTED RESIDENT!!!
Costas – the answer to your question is never.
As normal, the well connected usual suspects club benefit from different systems of fairness and legal justice than is applied to the rest of us law abiding taxpayers and also a less rigorously or robustly applied one, by the sounds of it.
Of course matching outstanding IPT bills with utility bills for the same properties is way beyond the wit of the Beverly Hillbillies?
Lots of local back scratching going on with the ATM’s paying out yet again.
Just when will EU laws be effectively applied here?
I think there are about 100 of us on this island who accept their fiscal responsibilities. Everyone else is ducking and diving.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE – PAY WHAT YOU OWE!!!!!
Campbell.
Tax dodgers in Cyprus?? I don’t believe it.
And as for being unable to track down these fraudsters, if the government confiscated all the known properties with false papers, I bet the owners would pretty soon show up.