Posted by mseidner on August 16, 2004 at 17:38:56:
In Reply to: Beware real estate taxes posted by Maxim on August 16, 2004 at 17:04:33:
Hi Maxim,
Real estate taxes in Ukraine ARE changing, but not to a yearly tax, I suspect because the majority of people people couldn't afford it, and WOULDN'T pay it.
They way it works now is you pay 5% of the purchase price when you buy a property, but what people invariably do is to indicate a lower amount, "yeah, I bought this new mansion, for uhh, uhh, 100 Grivna, yeah 100 Grivna", here's the 5 Grivna tax, can I go now?"
The new tax law looks like instead there will be an appraiser, and the purchaser will have to pay 5% of the appraised value, and (this part is new), the seller will have to pay income tax on the profit (currently Ukraine income tax is 13%), so instead of a ROI of three years, with taxes it'll be 4, that's it, it's still a good buy for investment, even better if you're going to use it as a residence. In the USA I paid about 600 USD/month in property tax, and about 150 USD/month insurance, utilities (water, gas, electric, phone, cable, etc) combined cost me about 300 USD/month, so everything cost almost 1,100/month, In Ukraine, I have a house twice the size of the one I had in California, and for EVERYTHING I pay about 50 USD/month!!! Can't beat the location, I'm a 5 minute walk to the Black Sea...
Mark Seidner Sevastopol, Ukraine
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