The fee for registering in the land registry will increase to 2000 crowns

Prague - The fee for registration in the land register will likely increase from the current one thousand crowns to double that amount. The Chamber of Deputies approved this today in the so-called tax package, which primarily increases excise duties on alcohol and tobacco products. The government defends the proposal to increase the fee citing inflation and higher administrative costs. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the higher costs are related to the protection of property owners against fraudulent transfers.

"In the case of administrative fees for accepting proposals to initiate proceedings for granting registration in the land register, there has been a significant increase in inflation since their last increase more than seven years ago, as well as an increase in costs associated with the registration proceedings, particularly in connection with the recodification of private law, which came into effect on January 1, 2014," the government stated in the explanatory report.

Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (for ANO) later said during parliamentary interpellations that the fee increase had been a long-standing demand of the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping, and Cadastre. According to her, the office wanted an even higher increase.

MPs Věra Kovářová (STAN), Mikuláš Ferječník (Pirates), and Jan Bartošek (KDU-ČSL) proposed that the fee remain unchanged, but the parliamentary majority rejected their proposal. The government proposal to increase some taxes will now be discussed in the Senate. It is not excluded that it may be returned to the Chamber of Deputies.

The last time the fee was approved for an increase was in 2011 when it rose from the then 500 crowns to double that amount. The then Minister of Agriculture Ivan Fuksa (ODS) justified the increase by stating that it compensates for inflation since 1994, when this fee was established. "It would likely be appropriate to increase this fee even more," he said at the time.

"It is also appropriate to note that people do not buy property so often that there should be concerns about the impact of this fee on citizens or entrepreneurs, and it is paid in connection with transactions where the purchase price is counted in hundreds of thousands or millions, so this fee represents only a negligible expense in comparison to real estate transactions," argued Minister Fuksa in 2011.