New deadline to submit property valuation forms

THE Finance Ministry's Valuation Division announced a further extension of the deadline to submit property valuation forms.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry said the deadline has been extended to February 28.

The first deadline was November 30, 2021 which was then extended to January 31 (Monday). The ministry explained, the decision to further extend to February 28 was "taken in recognition of difficulties that some property owners may have experienced in obtaining the required supporting documents in the context of covid19 restrictions."

The ministry said the Commissioner of Valuations wanted to remind owners of residential land, commercial land, agricultural land or a combination of the three, with or without buildings on those lands, to submit the particulars about those properties to the division, in keeping with Section 29 of the Valuation Act.

The ministry reiterated that under Section 32 of the act, failure to comply constitutes a criminal offence punishable by a $5,000 fine.

In the House of Representatives on November 24, 2021, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the ministry had received 165,000 completed valuation forms for residential properties, out of the 200,000 needed to reach the 50 per cent threshold required by law to trigger collection under the Property Tax Act.

"The information I have from the Valuation Division is that on the previous occasion approximately 127,000 returns were submitted for residential properties," he said referring to an effort begun in 2016 but halted in 2018 after a legal challenge.

"So far on this occasion, approximately a further 55,000 forms have been submitted."

Of the 55,000, some 7,000 forms were re-submissions, while 37,500 were new, he added.