The Matosinhos City Council approved, at this Wednesday's meeting, an increase in the Municipal Property Tax (IMI) rate, from 0.325% to 0.375%. At the same time, it decided to grant a reduction of 15% for those who live in the municipality and 25% for buildings with energy efficiency
The increase of the IMI rate was voted against by all the opposition (councillors from PSD, CDU and António Parada's movement). In a statement, the Municipality said that the IMI rate to be applied to owner-occupied housing will now be 0.319%, due to this reduction.
However, the PSD has a different understanding. Councillor Bruno Pereira accuses the PS of doing "creative accounting", as he considers that the increase in the IMI rate is 15.4%, so even residents will pay 0.4% more tax. "The increase ends up being higher than 15%", he told JN. On the other hand, he criticizes the fact that the measure is not applied to all property owners, leaving out "commercial activities, second homes and houses on the rental market in general".
The CDU councillor believes that the measure that aims to grant a 15% reduction to residents is insufficient. José Pedro Rodrigues told JN that it "falls short" of the commitment previously made by the PS, to "gradually reduce the IMI rate to the minimum value", which is 0.3%.
Despite the votes against the increase of the IMI rate, both the PSD and the CDU agreed with the referred reduction of 15% for residents, which is part of a wider package of tax benefits.
Also according to the council's statement, urban buildings with energy efficiency will also benefit from a reduction in IMI - in this case, of 25% - while the owners of buildings that are included in the affordable rent programme will be exempt for a period of five years. As for low-income families who are residents, "they will once again be exempt from paying that tax", the notice states.
In addition to setting the general rate at 0.375%, the local authority will increase it "to three times that of urban buildings that have been vacant for more than a year and ruined buildings", according to the proposal approved at the meeting.
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