Tax bills issued for "488,000 empty houses" in Iran

The Director General of the Tax Process Design and Analysis Office announced the issuance of tax bills for "488,000 empty residential units" and said that 13,000 luxury units have been identified across the country, from which nearly 500 billion tomans in taxes will be collected.

Jahangir Rahimi, in an interview with ILNA news agency on Tuesday, March 14, said that the tax bill issued was for the first nine months of 1402.

He stated: "So far, 570,000 vacant properties have been identified, some of which have legal owners who belong to various institutions, and taxes are collected from these institutions according to the law."

These statements come at a time when Mahmoud Mahmoudzadeh, Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development, announced on December 8 that two million and 300 thousand empty residential units had been identified in the country and said that the acquisition of 900 thousand units was in the hands of government agencies.

To compensate for the severe budget deficit, the Iranian government has imposed taxes on empty and luxury homes, cars worth more than one billion tomans, and purchases of gold, coins, and foreign currency.

In the 1401 budget bill, the government of Ebrahim Raisi has increased tax revenues by 62% compared to the current year.

Mr. Rahimi did not explain how much the tax on empty houses would be, but the head of the Tax Affairs Organization had previously said that this amount would be half the monthly rent value of an empty house.

Official statistics show that housing rents in Tehran increased by 51 percent in January compared to the same period last year.

Source: Radio Farda