In September, property owners with €500,000 in total property assets will be charged an enhanced amount for the annual property tax, or IMI.
This new tax includes real estate development companies, many of which have many properties in stock, the value of which now is totted up and the total value is taxed at 0.4% of the total taxable value (VP) of their stock.
The situation is worrying for real estate developers who are receiving tax bills of anything up to €50,000 on properties they have not yet been able to shift.
The president of Portugal property professional association says that he has already been contacted by several members who have received huge tax bills through the post.
Luís Lima says that paying the higher IMI bills for these houses make no sense and hopes that the Government will take these professionals into account in the next Budget and make an exemption.
Lima certainly wants the Government to listen more to the property sector that only now is coming out of a long recession but the government points out that its new IMI tax provides for a three-year exemption from the additional payment and that after this generous period, they must pay up.
After three years, the owners and developers of real estate have to start paying tax bills, like everyone else but this may not have been the intention of the new law pushed through by the Socialist government at the insistence of the Left Bloc.
The other controversy surrounding this new tax erupted after nearly 212,000 tax bills started to be sent out this month, catching out many taxpaying couples who had not divided their portfolio between themselves.
The government said it would ensure the Tax Authority would give these couples an extension within which to register themselves as being taxed separately, but nothing yet has been done.
