The stupidest tax in the world?

Just a few days after Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński asked Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska to prepare regulations allowing for the introduction of a monthly property tax, he himself withdrew from the idea.

"It's too early for the [monthly] property tax, because [Polish] society is too poor," the Prime Minister said, explaining that it would force many poorer citizens to give up their properties.

Paweł Grzàbka, an analyst with CEE Property Group, agrees, saying, "Many [poorer citizens] have become flat owners thanks to the bill on purchasing cooperative flats … a large group of those people won't be able to pay the property tax," he said. Grzàbka pointed out another possible problem, as well. With growing apartment prices, many Poles won't be able to afford their own flats and will thus have to rent apartments. "Landlords, having to pay the property tax, will most certainly transfer this burden to the tenants," Grzàbka said.

However, the government is not completely giving up on its plans for a monthly property tax. Kaczyński explained that work is being conducted on how to transform the tax system without affecting the less affluent. "A large proportion of the well-off does not pay taxes … and the richest pay them abroad," the Prime Minister said at the end of June.

A number of developed countries have property taxes, including France, the UK, Germany and Canada. "In France it's called the stupidest tax in the world," Grzàbka said, explaining that it discourages the French and foreigners alike from investing in French properties.