The Cyprus government in an effort to boost the property market has voted new laws in relation to transfer fees. As you may be aware under existing law when property is transferred from a seller to a new buyer the buyer has to pay a fee which is a considerable sum of money to the government in the form of transfer fees. Under the new rules buyers who purchase property which is subject to VAT (i.e. new buildings which obtained building permission after 01/05/2004 and which are transferred for the first time) will pay no transfer fees at all, whereas those who buy property which is VAT exempt (i.e. buildings which are transferred for the first time but obtained building permission before 01/05/2004) will pay at the rate of 50% of the transfer fees that would have been due under existing rules. Please be aware that the new rules will only be in effect only for a six month period, i.e. for new properties to be transferred between 02/12/2011 and 02/06/2012. Below please find an example of how transfer fees were calculated under the current rules: If someone purchased a house worth Euro 300,000 (excluding VAT) he would have to pay the following transfer fees: - For the first 85,430 at 3% the sum of Euro 2,562.90 will be due
- For the second 85,430 at 5% the sum of Euro 4,271.50 will be due
- For the balance of 129,139 at 8% the sum of Euro 10,331.12 will be due
Therefore under the new rules this buyer will be saving up to a total of Euro17,165.52 |