After mixed signals, it seems that the government will fulfil the Prime Minister’s promise to postpone the widely-hated tax.
Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Saturday that the Croatian government would use its next session on Thursday to adopt and send to the Parliament a proposal to amend the Law on Local Taxes, which will include a postponement of the property tax, which is currently scheduled to come into force on 1 January, reports Jutarnji List on September 10, 2017.
On Thursday, all details about the delay in the introduction of the tax should be known. This will also be a subject of public debates, panels and presentations in the following period, said Finance Minister Marić.
He reiterated that the property tax had never been conceived as a new tax, but as an integral part of the overall tax reform through which the taxes had been lowered by more than two billion kunas.
In the meantime, citizens and businesses will continue to pay the communal fee, the so-called monument rent and the tax on holiday homes, he added.
Marić also reiterated that the government’s goal was for the new tax to become a general income of towns and municipalities, as opposed to the present communal fee which can be used only for the construction and maintenance of local municipal infrastructure.
Unlike the communal fee, the income from the property tax would be general revenue, which could be used to build kindergartens, co-finance projects from EU funds and fund other major projects in towns and municipalities.
He also pointed out that the government had clearly stated that it was not planning to introduce the property tax which would be based on the actual value of the property. “We have started from the existing system which we wanted to improve because it is not fair that two properties, one being new and other being 50 years old, pay the same fee, as is now the case,” Marić concluded.
Asked by journalists, the Finance Minister confirmed that this year’s tourist season had broken all the records and that the financial results seen in the budget were excellent. “We will wait a little bit longer for the final economic indicators, but I monitor them together with my associates in the ministry every day,” explained Marić.
He added that they expected a good season, for reasons explained in statements made by Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli. “In general, the expectations were high, and with some indicators, we are even above our expectations,” he added.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
