How to challenge a new property tax

Two years ago, the real estate tax payment system changed. Now Russians have to pay tens of times more. The amount of tax began to be determined by the market value of housing, often overpriced. Are there any prospects for contestation?

What happened

The motive for the change in tax assessment was attempts to increase cash inflows to regional budgets that are in short supply. Thus, instead of the inventory cost of housing, the cadastral value was taken into account.

If earlier, according to the inventory system, a two-room apartment in Moscow was estimated at 3 million rubles, then according to the cadastral system, it was 6 million. At the same time, the tax rate remained 0.1 percent. And if in previous years the payment was about 300 rubles, now it exceeds 6 thousand. But they decided to introduce changes gradually using a decreasing coefficient, which by 2020 from 0.20 to 0.1%.

At the time of housing valuation, the cadastral value was exceeded due to the expectation of higher prices in subsequent years. But the situation has changed and the market price is far from the one set by regulators.

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Is it possible to challenge

The head of the tax service believes that assessing the market value of housing does not suit most of the population, but he says that there is always the opportunity to challenge it. In practice, such a chance exists, but it is very difficult to realize because of the high bureaucratization.

Lawyers from the consumer protection hotline offer options. If the owners are not satisfied with the assessment of the cadastral value, an independent examination must be ordered. To use the evaluation protocol in court, they must be approved by employees from the organization of the specialist who conducted the work. Thus, owners will have to prove the fidelity of their reports. This increases the cost and time of the procedure. On average, about 50 thousand will have to be paid for an assessment of housing.

The plaintiff with the confirmed report goes to the cadastral commission, which makes a decision. After a positive response, you can go to court. In this case, the court will be more favorable to the state inspection bodies than to the owner. The procedure from start to finish takes about a year.

What needs to be changed

According to experts, the solution to the problem could be the creation of a new assessment mechanism, after which the tax will be calculated. At the same time, it would be more logical and more profitable for owners to evaluate housing not by the cost in the market, but by the technical characteristics of the building and apartment.

Such characteristics include the number of floors, construction material, building service life, location, area and quadrature.