Paphos Life

Hi

Last year, out of the blue, we received 2 cheques for €356 from the government. They are refunds of IPT. I deposited my cheque into my BOC savings account but my wife doesn’t have a Cyprus bank account and there are no contact details on the cheque.

Does anyone know the contact details of the relevant government department?

Cheers

Could you make your account a joint account ?

I tried but we weren’t in Cyprus long enough to go through the admin. Opening accounts isn’t as straight forward as it used to be.

I tried but we weren’t in Cyprus long enough to go through the admin. Opening accounts isn’t as straight forward as it used to be.

Thanks HIC, I’ll email him. First Direct have also given me an address to send the cheque to for conversion but couldn’t confirm the fees. A few hundred euros isn’t a big deal but it’s irritating that it isn’t easy to cash. I didn’t expect to get a refund as didn’t pursue one so I was surprised to get the cheques -they will pay for a few flights though!

I thought there is no property tax in Cyprus. Or does it vary by municipality?

May I ask on what basis are you entitled to a refund of IPT?....
Never heard of this before....

jonjo wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 5:13 pm Hi

Last year, out of the blue, we received 2 cheques for €356 from the government. They are refunds of IPT. I deposited my cheque into my BOC savings account but my wife doesn’t have a Cyprus bank account and there are no contact details on the cheque.

Does anyone know the contact details of the relevant government department?

Cheers

Hi Jonjo, could I as if that was the total for the cheques or two separate ones of 356 each. I only ask as our house, now sold, was in joint names and wondered if we would get one each, whenever that day comes. It's been years waiting already.
Thanks.

daveg wrote: ↑Sun Jan 23, 2022 8:21 am May I ask on what basis are you entitled to a refund of IPT?....
Never heard of this before....

Usually where, particularly on complexes, you had been paying a communal fee to the developer before the title deeds were issued for the individual properties - as the whole complex is treated as one property for which the developer was liable to pay the IPT, who would then bill you on your annual communal fee.

Once you had your deeds you could then submit a claim based on the valuation of the individual property and individual IPT allowances together with copies of the invoices the developers had issued.

Most people I know got their solicitors to fill in the forms and then you sat back and waited for a couple of years, which is what we did until we mentioned it to our accountant who not surprisingly knows everybody at the tax office and got it sorted in a couple of weeks. We got about €750 back, how that compares to what we’d paid to the developer prior to the issue of our deeds, I don’t recall.

Ian

Interesting, but reading HIC' s comment above, I can't imagine he lives on a complex, yet mentions overdue IPT payment.
Perhaps he can clarify?...

So this is my story...

I bought an Aristo villa in 2006 and had to wait until around 2010 to get the deeds. Lots of nonsense about Aristo/Peyia Municipality needing to sign off the whole development (only 16 villas in total and a communal pool). It was very frustrating as Aristo needed to come back and build a shower/toilet block at the pool to comply with planning regulations and the plans also had to be amended to accommodate pergolas that some residents had built. Eventually the deeds arrived and I paid for them just before the government offered a 50% discount to encourage all owners to secure their deeds - it must have been the global financial crisis that drove the government to look for alternative sources of funding!

At the time, the solicitor pointed out that I was due a refund of IPT...... and then 11 years later (May 2021) two cheques arrived - one for me and one for my wife totaling 712 euro. I've riffled through my old paperwork and can only find two JCC smart payments of 76 euro to the tax office.

Anyway, First Direct has now confirmed that it is only £5 to convert and cash my wife's cheque.