The minister’s adviser Oskars Vizbulis said that in Gerhards’ view, real estate tax must not put great financial pressure on residents and foster the growth of tax debts. At the same time, the tax has to ensure predictable revenue to local governments’ budgets.
He believes that the local governments’ rights to grant tax allowances to certain categories of taxpayers should be retained.
The minister supports a property taxation system that would be fair and unaffected by the number of persons declared as residents at the given property.
The news follows reports over increasing numbers of people in Rīga and near Rīga not being able to pay the real estate tax.
A people's initiative over lifting the tax for a sole property owned by an individual was sent to the parliament after 13,000 signatures were collected at the Manabalss.lv website.
LTV reported previously that income from real estate tax has increased from €100.6m in 2008 to €219.8m in 2016.