The Ministry of Finance will likely submit a proposal to abolish the real estate acquisition tax to the government next week. The tax is currently 4% of the total purchase price. However, the proposal should include also an adjustment in the possibility of tax base deductions from newly concluded mortgage loans.
Anyone who paid the tax in the past or has acquired a property exempt from this tax (e.g. first purchase of a new apartment), should be able to continue to apply the tax base deductions in their income tax return. Mortgage refinancing should also be considered in the amendment so that it is not treated as a new loan.
The amendment should be retroactive, i.e. it should have retroactive effect as of the date of its approval by the government. In the meantime, whoever pays the acquisition tax should be further eligible for the mortgage interest tax base deduction.
Those whose transfers are currently taxable would most likely profit from this amendment, especially companies (if the amendment will apply to legal entities as well).
On the other hand, those individuals who bought a new property (for instance from a developer company) had the purchase tax free anyway and newly would not be allowed to apply the mortgage interest paid for financing such property.
But let’s wait for the final wording of the proposal as well as the fact whether it will be approved.