Finance Ministry rushes to introduce property tax amendments

Some taxpayers would have been called to pay 1,000 times more property tax

The Greek Finance Ministry is scrambling to introduce amendments to the ENFIA property tax in an effort to nullify nearly 80,000 tax clearance statements before they are even issued by tax services. The aim is to cut some of the huge property tax burdens on citizens, who according to law provisions would be called upon to pay to pay 50,000 Euros from 50 Euros last year for farm plots! The amendments are expected to be introduced today in Parliament and will include the scrapping of the clause for the estimation of property tax on farm plots; the revision of the number of ENFIA property tax instalments and the abolition of the exemptions and discounts for those with interests above 300 Euros. According to the Ministry, the trial run of the tax clearance system through the online electronic governance software came up with some 80,000 taxpayers being billed with huge tax property amounts in the range of 50,000 Euros compared to last year when they paid only 50 Euros for farm plots! These large discrepancies were due to mistakes in filing the tax statements by the citizens, according to the Ministry. Meanwhile, the ENFIA property tax will be settled in 5 payments, with the first one starting at the end pot September and the final one due at the end of January 2017.