AMENDED property tax notices are currently being mailed out.
The Ministry of Finance posted an advisory on its website on Tuesday asking recipients to disregard previous property tax notices of assessment dated before March 6, 2024 as “these are now null and void.”
The notice from the Inland Revenue Division states, “The Property Tax Act was amended to change the rate of tax payable (%ATV) from 3% to 2%.”
The ministry advised that payments, objections and deferrals will only be accepted on the revised notices.
All payments are due by September 30, 2024.
The Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) Division apologised for any inconvenience caused by the new measure.
The notice comes almost three months since the Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 2024, was passed in March.
The bill proposed to reduce the rate of Residential Property Tax from 3% to 2%, to extend the time in relation to the year 2024 for the BIR to issue Notices of Assessment up to June 30, 2024 and to allow for the extension of all applicable time periods by Order, as is the case under the Valuation of Land Act.
The amendment came after uproar and complaints from the Opposition and other citizens about the amount being paid.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert in his statement to the House of Representatives on March 15, 2024 said he was advised by the BIR that up to that date, a total of 801 payments of property tax had been made for a total of $1,030,864.55 (an average of $1,297 in annual property tax).
He said then, “All of these taxpayers will be issued with new tax notices at the new rate of 2% and refunded, and I have asked the BIR to do so promptly.”
