Public Debate on Bringing Real Estate to Taxation

NGO to fight corruption, Transparency Azerbaijan held hearing in Baku in the format of "round table" on the topic of bringing to taxation income from the sale of real estate.

The event organizers conducted a survey, according to the results of which after the application in Q1 of this year in Azerbaijan of a new mechanism to bring income from the sale of real estate (including land parcels) to tax, activity in the market has fallen. Only in H1 of this year the number of registration of rights to real estate fell by 32%. This is a direct result of the high taxes paid by both citizens and construction companies. The representative of the State Register Service of Real Estate did not agree with this and said that in the first three quarters of this year, the number of registered real estate transactions increased by 5.5%

Addressing the meeting, Head of Tax Policy of the Ministry of Taxes Nijat Imanov said that taking into account the public interest, Parliament in October this year passed a bill providing for the revision of the principles of attraction to tax real estate transactions. Now, if the tax is charged based on the size of the transaction on the purchase and sale of real estate, according to the bill, from January 1, the main criterion will be the area of real estate. Tax (15 manats for each square meter of territory and taking into account the zonal coefficient) will be charged to the notary's office. Experts of Transparency Azerbaijan estimated that the amount of taxes in this case is reduced by about three times. The tax will not be levied on those properties used for housing, in which the owner is permanently resident for 5 years. Today, this term is limited to three years.

The "round table" was attended by representatives of various government agencies, non-governmental organizations and experts. The organization Transparency Azerbaijan presented a package of recommendations on improvement of tax legislation. ----08C