TRP ‘no cause for concern’

By Tom Edwards

A PROPERTY expert is advising islanders not to be worried by the switch from tax on rateable value to tax on real property. Collas Day head of property Advocate Richard Ogier said the change should not be a cause for concern, but business owners and the public should be prompt in checking their basis for assessment and challenging it if necessary.

‘I am not surprised at the concerns that have been expressed, but I am surprised that there was so little public comment about the proposed changes earlier on,’ he said.

‘Most information on the proposal has been available for weeks, apart from the new assessment of the area of land and buildings on which you would be rated, which was set in November. But it has been necessary to look in the Billet d’Etat and the 2008 Budget Report to find the rest.’

The long-term significance is not the change in the method of calculation but the role property taxes will have in balancing the States budget, added Advocate Ogier.

Quoting a States press release from March 2006, he said Treasury and Resources had made it clear that property taxes were ‘…a means by which additional revenue could be raised to help make up the deficit arising from changes to business taxation’.

‘Clearly, the new arrangements will depend on the accuracy of the measurements used by Treasury to calculate assessable units, which are the area of land and buildings on which people are taxed.

‘These measurements are largely based on aerial photographs and there is a right of review of the assessment made.

‘If the property owner is still dissatisfied, they also have the right of appeal to a tribunal.’

It should have been anticipated that the switch would have created a flurry of alarm as homes and business premises represent most people’s major investment, he added.