The property acquisition tax will be paid; the Chamber of Deputies did not abolish it

Prague - The property acquisition tax will continue to be collected. Today, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the Senate's proposal to abolish the tax. According to some senators, this tax is immoral. The Senate wanted to include the abolition of the tax in a parliamentary amendment that exempts the first sale of apartments in family houses from the tax. The Chamber approved the amendment with the mentioned exemption for apartments in family houses. It will now be sent to the president for signature.

Sixty-six deputies voted for the abolition of the tax, while 82 votes were needed. Opposition deputies wanted to abolish the tax, while deputies from ANO, ČSSD, and KSČM rejected the Senate's proposal or abstained.

Last year, the state collected 13.6 billion crowns from the acquisition tax, while two years ago it was 12.5 billion. The ODS had already proposed the abolition of the statutory measure on the acquisition tax in the Chamber during the approval of the currently discussed amendment. The same proposal was rejected by the Chamber last year.

The acquisition tax rate is four percent and has been paid by buyers since 2016. Before that, it was paid by the seller, and the buyer was in the position of guarantor.

Senator representative Raduan Nwelati (ODS) told deputies today that the only reason this tax is collected is to bring money into the state budget. He stated that if Parliament were to abolish it, this year it would mean a shortfall of three to four billion crowns. According to him, the acquisition tax unnecessarily increases the costs of acquiring one's own housing and thus prevents some people from obtaining their own housing. Moreover, it is a taxation of money that has already been taxed, he added.

"I think that the state budget cannot be sliced up like this using a salami method," said Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (for ANO) regarding the proposal to abolish the tax. According to her, there would be room for discussion if it were a proposal part of a specific reform that could abolish certain tax exemptions related to housing.

"We have the opportunity to make housing cheaper, which is enormously expensive," stated ODS deputy Jan Skopeček. On the other hand, Roman Onderka (ČSSD) pointed out that abolishing the tax would mean a shortfall of 13.5 billion for the state budget. However, Věra Kovářová (STAN) stated that it means 13.5 billion from taxpayers' pockets. According to former chair of the budget committee and ČSSD deputy Václav Votava, the tax is not immoral. However, he believes that it is immoral for the acquirer to pay it.

The chair of SPD, Tomio Okamura, also called for the abolition of the tax. "There is money. There would be no shortfall in the budget," he stated. According to him, the government can find the money elsewhere.

The amendment re-approved by the Chamber, drafted by ANO deputy Karel Raise, stipulates that the first sale of apartments in family houses will be exempt from the real estate acquisition tax. The existing exemptions in the law apply, among other things, to the first onerous acquisition of a family house or an apartment in an apartment building but not in a family house. According to regulations, a family house can have a maximum of three apartments. Deputy Raise argues, for example, that recently there has been a trend to delineate apartment units even in newly built family houses.

According to him, units in these houses sell better than ownership shares, and moreover, for three sold apartment units, the seller can earn more money than for the entire house. He estimated the gross impact of his proposal on the state budget to be between 85 to 100 million crowns per year.