Cadastral tax? The deputy minister from the Left responds to Zanberg, which is an obstacle to his implementation

Deputy Minister of Development and Technology Tomasz Lewandowski (New Left) assessed that the obstacle to the implementation of the cadastral tax, which the Razem Party proposes in its draft bill, is the lack of an information system on real estate and the problem with its valuation. He added that the Left is working on its project.

The Razem Party presented the project

The leader of the Razem Party, Adrian Zandberg, presented on Wednesday a draft law on the “anti-speculative” tax on the third apartment. The project assumptions show that the tax for people with three to five apartments would be 1%. value of the properties, from six to eight – 2 percent, and from the ninth and subsequent properties – 3 percent. values.

In Lewandowski's opinion, this project “assumes that we have two things we don't have” – Firstly, a national, integrated real estate information system, which would provide information on, among others, how many, what kind and who owns residential properties. And secondly, the estimated value of the real estate, which is to be the basis for the administrative decision on the tax assessment – he said in an interview with PAP.

According to the deputy head of the Ministry of Development and Technology, both of these issues “currently constitute a factual and legal obstacle to the rapid introduction of cadastral tax.”

16 million apartments to be appraised

As he pointed out, in total there are over 16 million apartments “which would have to be valued by someone with appropriate competences.” – If I were not a lawyer, but a wizard from Hogwarts, I would be very enthusiastic about this project – added Lewandowski.

When asked when we can expect a parliamentary bill introducing such or similar solutions, he said that “the proposal for a bridging solution is already ready and waiting for the decision of the party and the club.”

– It assumes possible actions now and the target model recommended by the Left. We are not competing with anyone for projects here, we are only working expertly and responsibly on various variants, he emphasized.

In his opinion, there are many other solutions apart from the cadastral tax, and the Left has “some proposals that are indirect.” – It is not the case that there is nothing between the real estate tax calculated on the surface and the tax calculated on the value. This is what the bill that has already been written is supposed to address, he emphasized.

– I am afraid that an emotional discussion and putting something imperfect on the table – this is a strong euphemism – may, unfortunately, cause the idea of ​​a value tax to be ridiculed for years to come and will have no chance of implementation. Simply put, we need less politics and building a negative narrative, and more substantive knowledge and work, he said.

Zandberg comments on the arguments of the Left

Adrian Zandberg, asked about Lewandowski's arguments, told PAP that “The New Left's excuses for not supporting an anti-speculation tax are getting weirder and weirder“Before the presidential elections, they supported him, but now they have changed their mind. Maybe they'd better openly say that Tusk banned them,” added the Razem leader.

– We have proposed a mechanism based on the existing Real Estate Price Register. We are not dogmatically attached to specific regulations, we are open to working on these solutions in committees. But – as I understand it – New Left politicians do not want to work at all. They prefer to say that “nothing can be done,” Zandberg said.

The Razem Group has 5 MPs, and 15 are needed to submit the project. For this reason, Zandberg appealed to politicians from other parties to support the project. At the moment, not enough signatures have been collected, and the New Left, which announced the submission of a similar bill, is criticizing the Razem project through the mouths of its politicians.

“In practice, this law has many errors”

On Thursday, the head of the Left club, Anna Maria Żukowska, wrote on X that she would not sign the project, and later, in a post by Razem spokesman Mateusz Merta, she added that she “don't care about the moans” of this party's politicians.

In turn, the former head of Razem, Magdalena Biejat – currently in KP Lewica – in an interview with PAP, said that if Razem had not joined the opposition, it could have “calmly submitted the bill with the appropriate number of signatures”.

“The idea itself is of course good in theory, but in practice this act has many errors. (…) The basic one is that we currently do not have a register of apartments,” she emphasized. According to her, this is “approaching the issue from a completely wrong angle, probably a bit for publicity.”

Szymon Adamus (PAP)

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