Cyprus-Forum.com

[Radio]

What is the latest situation with regard to this ?.

[Svetlana]

No VAT on land sales until ....um ...2007, I think.

Lana

[nhowarth]

You beat me to it Lana.

Cheers,

[Radio]

Thanks both, but when in 2007 ?. I've heard May, but I would have thought it would have coincided with the the government's new financial year; is that May ?.

[nhowarth]

Hi Radio,

Being it a bit more sensible than the UK in this matter, the financial year in Cyprus starts on 1st January.

So VAT will (probably) come in on 1st January 2007. Better get your skates on.

Regards,

[chrisp]

i've heard everyhting from March to May- apparently the goal posts keep moving - like everything else in Cyprus government

chris

[cosmic]

I am learning a lot from hanging out here, so please excuse my question -

Is VAT only going to be on land or will it also be on a property (in which case I suppose a developer will need to identify the land value)

Will this only apply to sales by companies, its just VAT does not usually apply to private sales. With VAT, a company charges the tax on the sale price and offsets the VAT it paid on buying before settling with the tax people. So seller collects the tax

In the UK we have stamp duty which the purchaser pays when they register the property, never heard of VAT on any private sales of anything

[Svetlana]

To answer your questions:

There is already VAT on property.

I cannot see that the Government can collect VAT on a private property sale.

We have Stamp Duty here too, but much lower rates than in the UK.

Lana

[cosmic]

Thank you for the explanation Lana, looks like one more thing to investigate/allow for

[nhowarth]

Hi Cosmic

> In the UK we have stamp duty which the purchaser pays when they register the property

In Cyprus, the eqivalent is known as Property Transfer Fees.

For more information about VAT on property sales (and the VAT rebate scheme), visit my website by clicking on the 'WWW' button below this message - go to the menu item 'Legal issues' and then 'Cyprus VAT regulations' next but one to the bottom.

Regards,