Few hours left for E9 corrections - The common mistakes made by property owners

The 7.3 million people have almost 24 hours' notice. property owners in order to make corrections to the Ε9 with regard to the details of their properties, so that they can identify any errors or omissions and thus avoid charges that are not attributable to them in the ENFIA.

As announced yesterday by Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), the application for the submission of Real Estate Data (E9) will close tomorrow, 8 September at 11:00 in the morning.

The application is closed in order to run the procedures for clearing the real estate tax (ENFIA). According to the planning of the Ministry of Finance, the ENFIA statements will be posted in the last 10 days of September and the first instalment is scheduled to be paid by the last day of the month, i.e. by 30 September.

More specifically, as announced by the Hellenic Revenue Service, «the Independent Authority for Public Revenues informs that the application for submitting 2021 Real Estate Tax Returns (E9) will be down from Wednesday, September 8, at 11:00 a.m., and until the posting of the 2021 ENFIA tax returns and the opening of the 2021 ENFIA amendment returns. The application for the submission of 2022 Real Estate Information Returns (E9) will be down on Wednesday, 8 September, between 11:00 and 15:00».

Property owners should be aware that they have only a few hours to make the corrections, if necessary, and thus avoid the a fine of EUR 100, in case they will want to do so in the near future and after the ENFIA bill has arrived.

Accountants emphasize that even a very small mistake can result in the payment of more than the normal ENFIA.

Let's look at some points that property owners should pay particular attention to.

Perhaps the most common error found in the E9 concerns the rights in rem which taxpayers have in immovable property. There are cases of taxpayers who have the small ownership or the usufruct on real estate and have been unjustly charged with additional ENFIA because they did not declare small ownership or usufruct but full ownership in the E9, by entering code 1 instead of codes 2 or 3 in the relevant columns of the E9 or by omitting to enter a code in these columns. In any such case, when settling the ENFIA, the deduction on the taxable value of the property, which is provided for in the case of fractional ownership or usufruct, depending on the age of the usufructuary, is not calculated, as it is automatically assumed that the property belongs to the declarant in full ownership.

This error can be detected by simply checking the code in column 15 or column 19 of table 1 of the E9, if it is a building or plot of land within a plan, or column 18 of table 2 of the E9, if it is a parcel of land. In order to correct the error, an amended - corrected E9 return must be submitted and the property details must be redeclared, with the correct column relating to the right in rem completed.

Co-owned by

In case of non-reporting of co-ownership percentage or incorrect co-ownership percentage, the computerised system of the Hellenic Tax Administration calculates the ENFIA assuming that the co-ownership percentage is 100%, i.e. that the taxpayer owns the entire property, so the entire ENFIA of the property is attributed to the same taxpayer.

In this case, in order to eliminate this unjust overcharging, the following should be submitted an E9 amendment declaration, in which the property in respect of which the error has been made must be declared again with the correct percentage of co-ownership completed in the corresponding column (in column 16 of Table 1 if it is a building, in column 19 of Table 1 if it is a plot of land within a town or village plan or in column 20 of Table 2 if it is a plot of land outside a town or village plan).

Also, property owners should check that they have correctly completed the data for unfinished buildings. It must be checked whether the filling in has been done correctly and this is because unfinished buildings are tax deductible 60%. Unfinished buildings are defined as buildings, regardless of their stage of construction, which have never been electrified and are empty, i.e. not used as buildings. Also, buildings, regardless of their stage of construction, which are electrified with site electricity, have never had any other electricity supply and are vacant, are also classified as unfinished. A coefficient of 0,4 is applied to unfinished buildings.

Finally, it should be checked that the data for warehouses and parking lots have been correctly completed. Ancillary spaces such as warehouses, underground parking, etc. are taxed at the 90% deduction. The same applies to swimming pools whether they are in a single-family home and owned by one owner or are in a multi-family home and are jointly owned are taxed at the regular rate. For ancillary spaces, a coefficient of 0,1 shall be applied.