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28th March 2024
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HomeNewsImmovable Property Tax demands by post

Immovable Property Tax demands by post

PROPERTY owners (i.e. those with the Title Deed to a property registered in their name) will receive a notice by 15 September to pay their Immovable Property Tax.

Imposed on all owners of property as part of the bailout package agreed with Cyprus’ international lenders, notices concerning large properties have already been sent by post.

Property owners may benefit from a 10 per cent discount if they pay before 16 October, while those who delay payment until after 15 November will pay a 10 per cent surcharge on their tax bill.

Taxpayers can pay either at the Inland Revenue offices or electronically (presumably using TAXISnet) by citing a reference number attached to the payment notice.

Properties belonging to the same owner will be considered as a whole and Immovable Property Tax will be imposed on their total value.

Tax estimates for this year are based on 1980 values of property, while as of next year a new valuation will be made based on the current value of properties.

At the present time it is unclear whether the tax demands will be printed in different languages to cater for non-Greek speaking property owners.

Further information

Immovable Property Tax bands for 2013, English translations of the required forms and guidance on payment may be found at Money off your Immovable Property Tax bill.

Update 20 August

Earlier today the cabinet met in Troodos where it was announced that those with properties whose 1980 value was €5,000 or less will be exempt from paying IPT. (This has to be approved by Parliament)

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24 COMMENTS

  1. There is something wrong. I didn’t understand about the title deeds so I asked Cybarco solicitor to come with me. Cybarco built the flats we are talking about! She said it would be around €6k I ended paying OVER €14k how do I check on this amount? With who in what office? I couldn’t have been more careful to get it correct!

  2. @ Nigel – it is likely that developers who are unable to pay their IPT as demanded by the Inland Revenue will have their tax debts turned into a “memos” at the Land Registry. In effect this will create encumbrances on plots of land that have already been purchased or will be purchased by buyers. The only way a buyer will know that such a memo has been created as an encumbrance specific to his or her property will be to request and obtain an N50 Survey Report from the Land Registry. It would, therefore, seem prudent for purchasers of property who are not the registered owners of that property to obtain new N50 Survey Reports from the Land Registry, so that they can assess the impact on them of the 2013 IPT collection measures against their property.

    Is this a reasonable assertion to make? And are you able to say when property buyers should request N50 Survey Reports from the Land Registry, given it will take time to collect, collate and assess data across government departments and then create and apply the memos? Is the Chief Revenue Officer or his colleagues at the Inland Revenue saying anything about this, particularly concerning the scale and monetary values of memos arising from developer indebtedness? I would very much welcome your reply. KD.

  3. Hi Nigel, ok sounds fair, no deeds no IPT for buyers….just concerned that they will try to through a law to cover developers backs, people will be surprised at how may govt. officials are linked to property dev.companies……

  4. @Di – As the developer was the owner of the property on 1st January 2013, it is he who is liable for the tax for this year (and he would have needed a tax clearance certificate from the Inland Revenue confirming that he had paid all the taxes before the deeds could have been registered in your name).

    So it shouldn’t make any difference whether you register now or later.

  5. We bought our property in 2004 and eventually acquired our Deeds in May of this year.

    We, like many others, had to cough up for the taxes paid by the Developer along with Interest (for his late payment of taxes and/or failing to complete a Tax Form on time). We argued the point that it was his liability not ours and managed to obtain a nominal reduction but in the end the clear response was ‘pay up or no transfer’. We paid in the end as we considered having the Deeds was more important and the Developer knew that he had us backed into a corner.

    Someone made the point earlier that tax for 2013 is paid by the Registered Owner as at 1st January – which in our case was clearly the Developer. I do not want to end up paying for more tax than I am liable for. With this in mind should I delay registering for tax until January 2014.

  6. @dimitri – I have just been speaking with the Chief Revenue Officer at the Inland Revenue in Nicosia.

    There are no plans to issue demands for Immovable Property Tax to those without deeds. I was advised that for those people who have bought off-plan and whose deeds have yet to be issued, the tax demand will be sent to their developer.

  7. @dimitri – what a ridiculous suggestion from the former head of land registry!

    Developers have been getting away without paying this tax for years – they must be held to account!!

    Simple – NO TITLE DEEDS NO TAX.

    They’ll be wanting hapless buyers to pay the developer’s Capital Gains and Income tax next – and his unpaid mortgage arrears!

  8. @Pippa – the suggestion is designed to help poorer families – I haven’t heard from anyone whose property has a 1980 value of €5,000 or less. (In the main these will be small village houses).

  9. I read the Cabinet have decided that ‘small’ holdings will be exempt the 75 Euros payment. Can I assumes those good citizens who have already paid will get a rebate? Probably not as most of them are foreigners anyway.

  10. @Steve. You see it hasn`t worked fine.This is why the country and it`s property market is in free fall.

    As far as IPT demands or requests from developers go , they can go to hell. No title Deeds equalls no taxes. The only people who should collect taxes are the proper authorities. Any one without title deeds who pays a further cent to their developer , will likely lose the lot.

  11. Nigel ta for reply, back to query sorry, if developer has more than one company will he/she take a hit on the total value of all the properties combined in these companies ?or is the bill per company…..

    On last nites mega tv, former head of land registry said it is not fair that developers are being levied with the charge for properties they built that have yet to be transferred to the buyers…He believes the law was rushed through to satisfy the toika, and next year that the tax will be levied on buyers by checking sales agreements lodged at the land registry..so even if you don’t have the deeds you pay the tax……

  12. May I add that I do not have the Title Deeds and have had to pay IPT based on what the value of my house might be!!!!!

  13. @Whirlybird Rtd – the first thing you need to do is get the Land Registry to carry out a Title Search to establish what charges have been lodged against the properties.

    You can find a guide on how to do that at New title search procedures in Cyprus.

    Once you’ve done that you can start planning how to get out of the situation.

    I hope to have some positive news on developments in 2 or 3 months.

  14. @dimitri – the owner can be a company, an organisation or an individual – they are all required to pay IPT on properties registered in their name on 1st January.

  15. I am a bit confused to say the least about this IPT and lack of title deeds etc. No one on our estate of approx. 32 homes have a title deed after 7 years (it still has the cursory unfinished house on it and the developer is renting 2 homes). We have been told that a memo has been placed on our site as the developer cannot pay the IPT, the site has not been split into separate plots according to the land registry, no completion certificate therefore no chance of title deeds.

    So, we are in a catch 22 situation like a lot of other people of being in a limbo with all this money which is stacking up and has to be paid at the end of the day, by this time who knows how much and on top of this we cannot find out how much our property is valued at due to it all being in the hands of a developer who appears to wash his hands of responsibility and a government who act like headless chickens and try to call in a few thousand euros instead of sort this mess out and gain a few million and much needed respect.

    Regards.

  16. Nigel Hello,

    When we say owner and properties belonging to one owner do we mean an individual? How does it work with developers and their companies as such? , will one developer who is the owner of abc builders ltd and also xyz developments ltd have the properties under both companies ‘lumped’ together and then taxed?

    On another note very confusing as the Larnaca land registry told me they have gone round valued most properties and will pass on the info to the tax authorities, what I don’t know is if they have valued properties that have been built illegally or do not comply with regulations in which case how can they tax something that is not ‘legal’? e.g in the case that there is no final approval or final approval was rejected.

  17. What about those of us without title deeds, I suspect the current owner i.e. the developer will pay and pass that on to us when if we ever get our title deeds ?

    Or is another law being adjusted as we speak to allow us to pay and the developers to get away with out transferring title deeds yet again ?

    Interesting ?

    UBoat

  18. Nigel,

    It might be worth pointing out that IPT is only payable by the person who’s name the deed is registered in on January 1st each year. We acquired our deeds in April this year, went down to the Paphos Tax Office, registered using forms 303 and one for paying Tax in Cyprus (in our case just IPT) and asked if the IPT for this year had been paid. The answer was no and we were charged €75 each. The collection officer would have clearly seen that we acquired our deeds in April and therefore we were not liable to pay the IPT for 2013 (which we didn’t know at the time). We are now trying to recover our overpayment which looks increasingly unlikely.

  19. Back to the same old issue. There are thousands of properties on the island that are owned in the main by Cypriots. These have never had title deeds and have never needed them. The properties have been passed down through the generations or new villas or houses have been built on land owned by the family. How are they going to value a one room traditional village house that in most cases isn’t safe to live in.

    I suppose they have to start somewhere but the only people that are going to suffer are the foreign buyers that are demanding title deeds. They should have left things as they were. It has worked fine for hundreds of years.

  20. Wow, I am impressed. We are in danger of suffering with altitude sickness and nosebleeds having reached these dizzy heights of efficiency. Presumably the policing, apprehension and subsequent prosecution of those who fail to pay will be as efficient. Well done to all concerned. Perhaps this will propel developers into a frenzy of attempting to offload title into buyers names – but somehow I just know there will appear a loophole to justify not doing so. I do so hope I am wrong.

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