The head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, enacted Law No. 15 of 2021 on March 29, which regulates the calculation of real estate sales tax, the Syrian-Arab state news agency (SANA) reported.
The law, which comes into force on May 3, 2021, sets sales tax rates for real estate based on market value per square meter and under an estimate of monetary value, as well as various criteria and factors for residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and tourist properties .
The law consists of 21 articles which define the tax rates on property sales based on the circulating prices of the property market and the estimate of the monetary value.
Under the law, the Syrian Ministry of Finance will base its calculation of sales tax rates on real estate on the market value of real estate units. The law gives Treasury Secretary Kinan Yaghi the power to set up committees whose job it is to estimate the monetary value of real estate units.
These committees include:
- A central committee headed by Finance Minister Kinan Yaghi, which consists of 10 members.
The Central Committee is responsible for overseeing and certifying the monetary value of real estate as assessed by the governorate’s main committees. The Central Committee appoints whom it deems qualified to carry out its duties.
The meetings of the committee are only recognized as legal if two-thirds of its members are present, including the chairman or the vice-chairman of the committee. The resolutions of the meetings are passed with a majority of the members present. In the event of a tie, the side of the chairman or the vice-chairman of the committee prevails.
- Main committees chaired by the directors of the finance directorates of each governorate. These committees are responsible for overseeing and approving the work of the sub-committees and may appoint those they consider qualified to carry out their duties. Each main committee consists of six members.
- Subcommittees formed in Provisional Centers, Cities, Districts, and Service Directorates and chaired by the head of the Provisional Centers’ finance department, a district finance director, or the relevant department head. Each subcommittee consists of six members.
The chair of the subcommittee hires a finance officer from the data entry department to mark real estate boundaries in a specially designed program. The sub-committees estimate the price classes circulating on the real estate market and the average monetary value per square meter for each real estate unit according to certain criteria and upload them to a geographic information system (GIS) specially developed for marking real estate boundaries. These committees may appoint anyone they deem appropriate to carry out their work.
The subcommittees meet at the invitation of their chairpersons at least every six months and as necessary to reevaluate the price ranges circulating in the real estate market and the average monetary value per square meter for each real estate unit.
The law defined the tax calculation for real estate sales with the following rate:
- 1% of the tax is calculated on the market value of residential property and land outside of zoning plans.
- 2% of the tax is charged for properties that are in a certified development plan.
- For the sale of non-residential properties, 3% of the tax is charged
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