Taxes are paid by the citizens of any country as a contribution to the betterment of the country. Property tax is a tax payable by the owner of a property. The tax is levied by government authorities and is payable to either the national government, the state government or to the municipal corporation of the region. The tax is used by the corporation to improve the civic conditions of the city or wherever the tax is being paid at. The amount of tax that is to be paid is usually calculated on the basis of the market value or the rental yield of the property.Property taxation systemPreviously the Kolkata municipal corporation assessed the amount of property tax payable for any property in the city on the basis of the rent the property could fetch. In case of vacant land, tax was calculated on the basis of it market value. But this system was a century old and becoming unscientific and unreasonable. Therefore in 2012 a new system for property tax collection was introduced in which the unit area assessment (UAA) system was introduced. In the new system the entire city is subdivided into several blocks and categorized into seven categories ranging from A to G. A is the highest category and G is the lowest. Taxes are levied according the base unit area value affixed for each block and category.Factors for determining property taxThere are a number of factors that are taken into consideration while calculating the annual tax of the property. These factors vary according to block and category and are multiplied by each other to calculate the annual tax of which 6 to 20% is charged. The factors are namely:Location and category of the property: As already mentioned all the 141 wards of the city are divided into blacks and categories. Properties in category are the poshest ones and regions like Alipore, AJC Bose Road, Phoolbagan, Park street etc are in this category. Less influential areas such as Garden Reach and Metiabruz are in category G.Base unit area value (BUAV): Under the UAA system each of the seven categories are given a specific Base unit area value. Base unit area value is high for affluent areas no matter where in the city they are located and is lower fir less affluent areas. Thus Alipore has a Base unit area value of Rs 85 per sq ft while that for Metiabruz is only Rs 15 per sq ft. BUAV is based on scientific, methodical and mathematical assessment of the different regions of the city and is meant to achieve Macro Level Equity for tax calculation.Multiplicative factors: Kolkata is a city that is as heterogeneous as any other and therefore properties that differ vastly from each other such as a hutment and a lifestyle complex, can be located side by side. In such a case the properties will not only belong to different categories but for tax calculation they are also to have different multiplicative factors (MFs). These factors include size of the property, age, purpose of use, location within a block, nature of occupancy and structural type. A property will have 5 MFs. MFs can vary between 0.5 and 8. If the MF of a property is less than 1 then BUAV will be automatically reduced when multiplied by that MF.Covered Space: After the BUAV is multiplied by the five MFs the result is called the final BUAV. It has to be further multiplied by the covered area/covered space to arrive at the annual value of the property. Guidelines to calculate covered area are provided in the Regulations.Tax Rate: in the UAA system the tax rate may vary between 6 and 20 % of the annual value of the property. The tax rate is varied according to the block and the category in which the property belongs. Tax rates for residential properties are not supposed to exceed 10% while for slums it is fixed at 8%. However under any circumstance it is not supposed to exceed 20%.Thus annual tax of a property= Base Unit Area Value of category of block where the property is situated (Rs. /sq. ft. /Year) x MF1 x MF2 x MF3 x MF4 x MF5 (All property specific value) x Covered space of Building /Area of Vacant Land (sq. ft.) x Tax rate percentageSome other related information:
- Payment schedule: Property tax has to be paid on a quarterly basis.
- Rebate: A 5% rebate will be provided to tax payers who will clear the taxes within the due date. An additional 5% rebate will be provided to those who will clear the taxes for the 2nd, 3rd and the 4th quarter within the due date of the property tax payment of the first quarter.
- BUAV and MFs will remain unchanged for 5 years after their implementation.
- If half of the property is being used for residential purpose and the other half for residential purpose then the BUAV, tax rate percentage, covered space regulation and most MFs remain the same but MF for purpose of use is differed for the two parts.
Some abbreviations for tax payment:PD Bill: Periodic Demand bills. These are issued annually and are based on the last decided valuation of the property.F/S Bill: Fresh/Supplementary bills. These are issued immediately after a hearing which comes up with any change to the earlier issued bills. Fresh bills are also to be issued after the first assessment of any property.LOI: Letter of Intimation is issued against outstanding tax bills. LOI contains all unpaid F/S bills which levies monetary penalty. It also contains all unpaid PD bills which were issued before the commencement of the current financial year.Online property tax payment:Property tax in Kolkata can also be paid online. Steps for paying the property tax online are:
- Go to the link https://www.kmcgov.in/KMCPortal/HomeAction.do which will lead to the home page of the Kolkata municipal corporation.
- The information related to the property tax payment will be present on the right side of the page among various other options.
- Click on the “Make online payment” option. You can choose whether you want to pay PD bills, fresh/supplementary bills or outstanding LOI.
- In the chosen category the user has to fill the relevant information such as Assessee number (which is received on mutation of the property), contact number and email id and click the “pay” button.
- For unpaid property tax the user can follow the link https://www.kmcgov.in/KMCPortal/jsp/KMCAssessmentCurrentPD.jsp
- To directly fill in the property information form, the user has to follow the link https://www.kmcgov.in/KMCPortal/UnitAreaNewAction.do
- To get the printout of the unpaid bill, click on the option ‘print unpaid bill’.
- To check the tax payment status, click on the option ‘check payment methods’.
- Once the user has filled in the details, he/she can proceed to the payment option after which the property tax payment is complete.
- In case of any confusion, the user can contact any of the members by using the link https://www.kmcgov.in/KMCPortal/jsp/AssessmntContact.jsp
In case you still prefer the offline means of tax payment you can go to any of the following centers:56/1 Raja Rajballabh Street, Kolkata – 700 003 (Ward – 8)79, Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata – 700 006 (Ward – 11)P-187, CIT Road, Kankurgachi V. I. P. Market, Kolkata – 700 054 (Ward – 33)28A, K. N. Sen Road, Kasba, Kolkata – 700 042 (Ward –67)212, Rashbehari Avenue, Kolkata – 700 019 (Ward –68)11, Belvedere Road, Kolkata – 700 027 (Ward –74)516, D. H. Road, Kolkata – 700 034 (Ward – 103) займ на карту без отказов круглосуточновзять кредит онлайн