HoR Approves Addition of Real Estate to Law Tax

Plan and Budget Committee at the House of Representatives (HoR) headed by Dr. Hussein Issa, the committees chair, approved during its meeting today, the proposal submitted by Representative Mervat Alexan, member of the committee, to add a new updated article No. 84 to the unified tax bill.

The bill allows real estate taxes to be included in the bill once the automating of the real estate tax system is completed.

The article proposed by Alexan, states that the provisions of this law shall apply to taxes launched by the Real Estate Tax Authority in a manner that does not conflict with the provisions of these laws defined by a decision of the Council of Ministers.

The concerned minister presents a request to the Cabinet after completion of the development and automating of the tax system.

Alexan's proposal won unanimous approval as the committee members voted in favor of it.

Representative Suhair Al-Hadi, a member of the committee, supported Alexan's proposal.

She pointed out that the Minister of Finance had previously promised the Committee for the Plan and Budget to add a transitional article to the text of the draft law allowing the inclusion of real estate taxes to the law after its automating the tax system.

There is a request to set a time limit for the completion of the development of the system and its automating, which was confirmed by Dr. Issa, who indicated that there is hardships to achieve it.

He pointed out that no one knows the date of completion of the development of the system.

On his part, Eng. Yasser Omar Shaibah, deputy-chair of the Plan and Budget Committee, stressed the need to accelerate the development and automating of the Real Estate Tax System and its inclusion in the unified tax law.

Representative Ibrahim Nazeer, a member of the committee, indicated that excluding real estate tax employees from this draft law may make them feel marginalized.