Received at the end of August, your property tax notice must be paid by the end of October according to your payment method. If you sign the deed of sale for your apartment before this date, who, you or your buyer, must pay the property tax?
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– Article 1415 of the General Tax Code specifies who is liable for property tax in the event of sale of the property during the year.
You received a notice last week from property tax 2024 is quite a steep one, to be paid by October 15, or before October 20 if you pay online. But you hope to avoid paying this because you have an appointment at the notary on September 19 to sign theauthentic deed of sale of your apartment. I might as well tell you right away that this is a vain hope: property tax is due for the whole year – 2024 in this case – by the owner of the apartment on January 1 of the same year, recalls the tax administration.
If you sell your property during the year, you remain the only person liable for the entire property tax for the entire year, according to article 1415 of the General Tax Code. But you can agree with the buyer of your apartment to proceed with a “pro rata temporis” distribution of the payment of property tax. In this case, you can agree that you, the seller, will pay the property tax for the period from January 1 to September 19, 2024, and that the buyer will bear the balance. This agreement must then be included in the compromise or deed of sale.
Property tax: the tax authorities are demanding it from me for a property that I sold, what should I do?
The distribution of property tax, a private agreement
This is a “private agreementwhich does not concern the tax administration”however, the latter emphasizes. It “does not therefore in any way modify the obligation to pay the entire tax” by the person who owned the property on January 1, adds the tax authorities. You must therefore pay the latter the entirety of your property tax. If you have agreed with your purchaser on a pro rata temporis distribution of the payment of the property tax, the amount owed by the purchaser will be transferred to your bank account by the notary after signing the deed of sale.
Please note that if the signing of the deed of sale occurs before receipt of your property tax notice, the notary will use the amount of tax you paid the previous year to calculate the amounts that you and your purchaser will have to pay respectively. This is a rough but definitive calculation : if your new property tax notice shows an increase compared to the previous year, you will not be able to claim an additional payment from the buyer of your property, specifies the Cafpi broker.
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