In reply to the letter of the Ombudsman received by the Ministry of Justice, where the Ministry of Justice is asked to explain the planned changes in the calculation of the immovable property tax, the Minister of Justice Jānis Bordāns recommends the Ombudsman to primary turn to the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister.
J.Bordāns: “Unfortunately, during the whole previous year, since we make an alert regarding the need to cancel the immovable property tax for dwellings and decrease the rates for merchants before approval of the planned cadastre values, the Ministry of Finance has indicated to us for several times that development of the tax policy is under its competence.
When responding to the fact that the Ministry of Finance was not ready to commence the work on the review of the tax policy in a timely manner, the Ministry of Justice prepared its proposal for cancellation of the tax for primary dwellings and decrease of rates also for merchants already a year ago, the Minister of Justice emphasizes.
In its reply letter the Ministry of Justice thanks to the Ombudsman for the attention paid to this topical issue, being important for the whole society, as well as shows support to the statements made in the letter regarding the fact that significant changes in the calculation of the immovable property tax are required before approval of the new cadastre values. As it is known, the Ombudsman showed support already in 2017 on the need to exempt the only dwelling from the burden of the immovable property tax.
The Minister of Justice has propagated that he will not move further the draft regulation on the base of the new cadastre values for approval of the government as long as there will be no guarantees for introduction of the non-taxable minimum for the primary dwelling and reduced tax rates for merchants.