REAL ESTATE TAX IN 2022 (REGISTRATION/DE-REGISTRATION)

Did you buy a property in 2021 or make any changes related to your real estate? Then you have until Monday January 31, 2022 to file your property tax return.

This is because anyone who acquired ownership of real estate in the previous year is required to file a tax return. This is even if you concluded a purchase contract and filed a proposal for registration of ownership last year, but the cadastral office did not register the ownership until this year, because you become the owner of the property retroactively on the date of filing the proposal for registration of ownership with the cadastral office.

Taxpayers are also obliged to file a tax return if they have made an extension, extension or partially disposed of the declared immovable property (i.e. the tax return has already been filed for this particular property at some point in the past). In addition, if, as a result of these changes, the type or area of the land has been changed at the same time, or the number of storeys has been increased, etc. And if part of a building or engineering structure is completed and subsequently used, the property is also subject to taxation. A change in the area of a plot of land following a revision by the Land Registry Office is also a decisive change for the assessment of tax.

As the selling party, you are, on the other hand, obliged to opt out of the real estate tax by January 31 of the calendar year following the one in which you sold the property. If January 31 falls on a Sunday, as in 2021, you will opt out on Monday February 1. As for the process of opting out, the law does not provide a form for filing, nor has a specific form been issued. That fact can be communicated to the local tax authority by an informal filing, usually a letter, indicating that the taxpayer has ceased to be a property taxpayer.

If you have sold one property and you have other properties in the territorial district of the tax authority that are subject to the real estate tax, this is a change in the circumstances relevant for the assessment of the tax. Pursuant to Section 13a(1) of the Real Estate Tax Act, you are required to file a tax return reflecting the change by January 31 of the tax year following the year in which you lost ownership of the real estate.