ArmInfo.A political decision has been made in Armenia not to revise cadastral prices close to market prices, which are supposed to be used for taxation, at this stage. This was stated by the head of the RA Cadastre Committee Suren Tovmasyan at a meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs on September 4.
According to Tovmasyan, despite the rise in prices in the real estate market after 2021, as well as despite the requirement for revaluation in 2023, which was supposed to become the new tax base starting in 2024, the authorities decided to take a break. <The Cadastre Committee did not revise real estate prices, realizing that the market is very dynamic and still unstable at this stage:, - he said.
Perhaps a new revaluation of real estate necessary for determining the tax base will be carried out by 2026, the head of the Committee said.
Since January 1, 2021, residents of Armenia began to pay property tax several times more, since the procedure for calculating it has changed: it is calculated based on the cadastral value close to the market value. In addition, since January 1, 2021, property tax has become mandatory for all owners, regardless of the value of the property.
Before that, owners of real estate worth up to 3 million drams (more than 6 thousand dollars) were exempt from taxes. In addition, if earlier land plots and buildings were assessed separately (buildings were subject to property tax, plots - land tax), now a single property tax is levied. And to sweeten the bitter pill, the government announced that the implementation of the tax innovation will be carried out in stages, over 6 years.
Thus, in 2021, citizens began to be charged only 25% of the envisaged tax, in 2022 - 30%, in 2023 - 35%, in 2024 - 50%, and in 2025 - 75%, and finally, from 2026, the tax will have to be paid in full. It was noted that as a result, the potential for collecting real estate tax will increase by an average of 4.3 times. According to the authorities themselves, the fees will increase from the initial 9 billion drams to 40 billion drams already in the 4th year of the implementation of the new taxation system, and from 2026, when the tax amount fully comes into force, the fiscal effect will be up to 37-38 billion drams every year. It was also reported that at least once every two years, the Cadastre Committee will review real estate prices in Armenia in order to determine the amount of real estate tax for this property on this basis.