It seems that the government has reached a compromise between those advocating for the introduction of property tax starting next year and those who were in favor of a one-year delay, meaning that the collection of property tax would begin on January 1, 2014, as reported by Novi list.
According to their information, the narrower cabinet of the government reached a compromise solution yesterday: the introduction of property tax from April 1 next year, with citizens starting to receive bills only in the last quarter of 2013.
As a second option, July 1 was mentioned, but it is much more likely that this could be the date when the collection of property tax and land tax begins.
From April until the end of the year, citizens should pay an amount as an advance on property tax for their houses or apartments, which they currently pay as a utility fee. At the end of the year, at the earliest in September, they will receive decisions regarding property tax, and it will then become known how much difference they will have to pay for the period from April 1 when the collection of property tax will actually be in effect in Croatia.
Thus, the introduction of property tax will indeed occur next year, as advocated by Finance Minister Slavko Linić, but citizens will not feel the new burden until the end of the year. This way, the government avoided the situation of sending citizens a bill for the new expense during the pre-election campaign for local elections that will be held in May next year.
