The Bulgarian government is exploring the possibility of introducing a progressive property taxation system. The proposal was announced after a cabinet meeting with the participation of the National Association of Municipalities of Bulgaria, while Prime Minister Rumen Radev noted that the concept is still at the initial stage of discussion.
According to the proposed model, the owner's first home will be taxed at the standard rate, and each additional property will be taxed on a progressively increasing scale.
The key problem highlighted by the Government is the lack of a unified property accounting system in different municipalities. Local administrations do not have access to complete data to determine whether the declared facility is the taxpayer's first, second, or third home.
"When the owner pays taxes for houses in different municipalities, the administrations do not know whether this is the first, second, third housing and so on," Radev explained, stressing that the lack of information exchange between municipalities makes it difficult to implement the reform.
To solve this problem, the government plans to create a centralized digital database that will combine ownership records across the country.Radev also pointed out that the current data on the estimated value of real estate is significantly outdated and probably does not correspond to the real market situation. In addition, the current 50% tax discount for basic housing further complicates the system, especially given the inconsistency of administrative data.
Source: Novinite
