Government official warns of the unconstitutionality of exempting private residence from taxes

A prominent government official has warned of the unconstitutionality of exemption of private residence due to the different values of the unit that would be exempted from mansions to villas, chalets and regular residential units, where the exemption applies to the value of the unit without any regulations, interfering with social equality.

The official –he requested his name not to be mentioned- said that the alterations approved by the council of ministers last week on the tax law on built real-estate 196 of 2008, came in disregard to the real-estate tax department and the ministry of finance reportsrelated to the non exemption of private residence, especially that this tendency prevent fraud and exploitation of the exemption.

He criticized, as well, exempting units allocated for non-housing objects for the first time in addition to educational institutions, hospitals, clinics, shelters and charity organizations without any regulations controlling the exemption, it should require that those bodies do not claim profits in order to be exempted.

Amwal Al Ghad