The government is planning new cuts to ENFIA by up to 20% in 2020 to relieve property owners who have been paying higher taxes in recent years.
The Ministry of economics and development is seeking additional financial space in order to reduce the ENFIA and the solidarity levy by 2020. Finance Minister Christos Staikouras has put in place concrete proposals to find additional budgetary space, proposing to exempt 200 mln. Euro in refugee flows from calculating projected surpluses, changing the use of Greek profits and the establishment of a surplus “bridge” from one year to the next.
ENFIA
The government is planning new cuts to ENFIA by up to 20% for 2020 in order to alleviate property owners who have been paying higher taxes in recent years. The finance team will proceed to the second phase of changes in property taxation with modifications to both ENFIA (will be reduced by 8% on average) and to fair values. However, the benefit to each property owner will be judged by the changes in fair value. The alignment of zone prices with trade values from June 2020 will determine whether ENFIA’s final account will be reduced by an average of 8% as announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. In some cases, the reductions, as mentioned above, will reach 20%, for example vacant and non-powered real estate, in other 10% -12% and others lower from5% to 8%. In areas where large increases in zone prices will be recorded, the 2020 ENFIA will be slightly reduced. In areas where the fair value is higher than the commercial value, the discount will reach 10% -12%.
SOLIDARITY LEVY
Scenarios for the reduction of the solidarity levy from mid-2020 are being worked out by the Ministry of economics and development under the premise that the 2020 budget will show a positive outlook and generate additional revenue to cover losses from a tax break that came as an extraordinary on years of capital controls and until now it remains steadfast. The Ministry of Finance aims to reduce the solidarity levy of all categories of taxpayers (tenants, retirees, professionals, farmers etc.) by 30% in 2020 and be completely abolished in 2021.