Business breakfast on excluding VAT from cadastral value

On 5 July 2019 Consul Group held its first practical event, a business breakfast on whether property-tax overpayments can be reclaimed by excluding VAT from cadastral value.

The experts showed how property tax assessed from cadastral value was collected from 2014 to 2018, and how large the overpayment was because VAT had been included in that value. Guests went through practical ways to reclaim it, the legal basis for taking VAT out, and the two lines of practice forming since 2015: excluding VAT from cadastral value, and excluding VAT from the tax base of the property.

The speaker was Sergei Pivovarchik, managing partner. The morning closed with a discussion of what keeps taxpayers from going to court. Sergei Pivovarchik said the two strongest reasons were the lack of positive court practice and the fear of a field tax audit, and that each of those reasons holds the other in place. Consul Group was at that moment building the missing practice for a specific client.

Heads of legal and finance attended, from companies that own large business centres, plants and warehouses, and from hotels, manufacturing and telecoms. Readers who wanted the next session were asked to write to pr@consul.group with the subject line about the VAT breakfast, and to give their name, position and company.