Lobby Groups Call for Bigger Land Tax Break
Two organizations representing homeowners and taxpayers say the land tax exemption planned for 2013 does not go far enough.
The Homeowners Association and the Taxpayers Association have sent a letter to Parliament's finance committee chairman Sven Sester (IRL), petitioning Parliament to extend the tax break - currently on 1,500 square meters of land - to all of the residential land attached to a registered primary home.
The organizations said a number of members had complained that their savings would be minimal or that they would make a net loss.
That is because even though the 1,500 square meter exemption enters force in Tallinn a year earlier - from the New Year - the annual rate will rise from 1.5 to 2.5 percent of the value on the rest of the property.
"The idea that homeowners should have to carve up their property and give up land to reduce expenses on homeownership cannot be deemed a reasonable solution," said the organizations in a joint statement
In the Tallinn district of Nõmme, roughly 16,650 plots are registered to individuals, and 1,110 of them are larger than 1,500 square meters. The average size is 2,017 square meters.
The savings for such an average owner of a larger property in Nõmme would thus be under 100 euros next year.
The associations' letter raised the question whether 1,500 square meters was a reasonable cutoff.
Kristopher Rikken