GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY DISCUSS Taxation of Real Estate
Posted by: admin | Posted on: Ноябрь 20, 2015Transparency Azerbaijan, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), organized a roundtable to discuss problems of “Real Estate Taxation” and their solutions. The roundtable is the latest in a series within the Azerbaijan Partnership for Transparency (APT) project designed to facilitate dialogue between the government institutions and NGOs with the aim of increasing transparency and accountability of government institutions and processes.Representatives from Anti-Corruption Department under Prosecutor General, Real Estate Registry Service, Ministry of Tax, Ministry of Economy and Industry and other state agencies, municipalities, as well as members of Azerbaijan’s civil society members participated in the roundtable. Rena Safaraliyeva, Executive Director of Transparency Azerbaijan made an opening speech stating that one of the main problems in the field of real estate management is income tax collected since February 2015 from the sale of residential and non-residential areas and land in 2014-2015. The changes proposed to the Tax Code that are expected to come into force in 2016 and ties the tax rate to the size of real estate rather than to the profit made at sales, will definitely improve the situation.Taking part in the roundtable, Nijat Imanov, the representative of the Ministry of Taxes gave information about the taxation of real estate as in the Tax Code in Azerbaijan and answered the questions of participants. Speaking at the event, Babek Ahmedli, the representative of the State Real Estate Registry Service talked about the work they do within their jurisdiction and tax on sales of real estate.
In the continuation of the event, Mahammad Muradov, project coordinator at “Transparency Azerbaijan» Anti-Corruption Public Union brought the problems occurring as a result of taxation of real estate and the difficulties faced by the citizens to the attention of the roundtable participants, including the relevant state authorities. He stated that the proposed flat taxation rate from sales of non-residential property does not distinguish between commercial and non-commercial property, such as garage or artists’ workshop, which puts the sellers of the latter into a disadvantageous position. Also, taxation of the real estate in proportion to its size shall simplify the procedure of issuing title documents for real estate: eliminate the system of approval for construction and reconstruction from the local executive bodies and expedite acceptance of the newly constructed buildings by respective agencies. At the end, he touched upon recently amended procedural rules for collection of property taxes and housing costs. Muradov made several recommendations and noted that these recommendations are developed by the organization with the aim to simplify tax calculation system in real estate field.
TA’s written recommendations along with advises from civil society organizations were delivered to the respective public agencies.
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