Saturday, July 16, 2011

Increase in property tax

Dear Mr. Tan
Many of you have received a notice from IRAS regarding the change in the Annual Value (AV) of your property and it's safe to say that majority of you would be paying more for your property tax.
 
In my case, my AV has increased by 17% in less than 1 year  and I am puzzled as to how IRAS derived the number.  I did a check at the rental data for my condominium at the URA website (http://www.ura.gov.sg/realEstateWeb/realEstate/pageflow/rental/RentalController.jpf) and the data showed a drop of 0.7% from 3Q10 to 1Q11.
 
I have written to IRAS to seek an explanation as to why there was a huge difference between their assessment and that of URA.
 
I urge all of you to do a quick check at the abovementioned website to verify if the increase stipulated by  IRAS is in line with the actual transactions published by URA.  If URA data cannot be trusted, perhaps IRAS may want to explain to us how they derive their numbers and also their source of data.
 
Thian TC
 
 
at

3 comments:

  1. SobriJuly 17, 2011 9:47 AM

    Everytime when the government announced that help would be given to the `less' fortunate, property tax for private houses and apartments would go up first. During the pre-elections campaign, the minister announced that there would be NO increase in GST. Thus, everything else (fares, property tax, COE, etc ) will go up.

    This reminds me of the Indian MP who promised a kati of rice at 1 rupee. She won, and the price of rice was indeed 1 rupee for a kati. But eveything else was increased multifold!

    Now, the minister warned of rocky weather ahead. If rental price goes down in the future, property tax will have to come down too. So to counter that, increase it now.

    Notice how ERP charges increase were always announced just before school holidays? Then, it was reduced during the school holidays ( because of reduced traffic ), giving motorists a feeling that there was no change. Then after the holidays, up went the charges, because the holidays were over.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SolomonJuly 17, 2011 10:17 AM

    Government needs money :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Singapore's 5 Minute Investment DiaryJuly 18, 2011 5:47 AM

    @ Simon.

    Govt. no need money.
    Citizens no need money.
    Everybody happy.

    Govt. need money.
    Citizens no need money.
    Everybody still happy.

    Govt. no need money.
    Citizens need money.
    Everybody can still tolerate.

    Govt. need money.
    Citizens need money.
    Singapore. We've got a big problem.

    ReplyDelete