The real estate tax, too, has not escaped changes under the consolidation package, which will come into force on 1 January 2024.

The biggest change that will occur is a significant increase in tax rates (up to 1.8 times on average), which will affect virtually all items of immovable property, with the exception of land that falls under the group of unused other areas.

In addition, the consolidation package increases the power of municipalities to set local coefficients.

The amendment also changes the definition of some land, where there is a change, for example in the case of paved area and building plot.

The government has also decided to fight inflation with a newly introduced inflation coefficient, which aims to offset the real decline in tax over time. The resulting land tax and the resulting tax on buildings and units will be multiplied by the inflation coefficient. The amount of this coefficient will then be announced by the Ministry of Finance on the basis of data from the Czech Statistical Office in the form of a communication, which will be available in the Collection of Laws and International Treaties by 30 June of the calendar year immediately preceding the tax period. Agricultural plots will be an exception here, as inflation is already taken into account in the tax base for such land and its amount will always be 1.0.

In connection with all the changes, it is important to mention that taxpayers, whose tax will increase only due to changes in tax rates or coefficients, do not have to file a new real estate tax return. The need to file a return applies only to taxpayers, who have undergone changes that are relevant for the assessment of the tax (e.g. acquisition of a new property, etc.)

In order to facilitate the work of taxpayers, the Financial Administration has launched a new service for automatic completion of returns as of 3 October 2023. Real estate tax payers can use the above-mentioned service to pre-fill the tax return with data already available to the Financial Administration or registered in the Land Registry. This novelty will significantly simplify the work for simpler returns, but for taxpayers who have a larger portfolio of assets, the automatic completion of the return will not be very practical, in our opinion. Those interested in using the DIS+ information boxes can try this service in a pilot operation on the My Taxes portal.