Ministry of Finance proposed to charge housing tax on the total rather than the living area

It was assumed that the tax would not be imposed on property owners if their apartment’s living area is less than 120 square meters, and ​​the house’s living area is less than 250 square meters. Now the Ministry of Finance have proposed to charge tax on the total rather than the living area.
This is referred to in the Law "On Amendments to Art. 265 of the Tax Code on the tax on real property other than land," published at the Ministry’s website.
The amendments proposed to change the wording "living area" to "total area."
It is assumed that the law will come into force on the day following the day of its publication.
On January 1, 2013, Art. 265 of the Tax Code came into force, which introduced a new local tax – a tax on property other than land, to be imposed on natural persons and legal entities, including non-residents – owners of residential property.
The taxable area of living space that is owned by an individual – taxpayer is reduced for flats to ​​120 square meters and for houses – to ​​250 square meters. Flats and houses in area under ​​120 square meters and under 250 square meters shall not be subject to tax, according to the Tax Code.
The tax rate for 1 sq. m. is set in the amount of 1% of the minimum wage (or 11.47 UAH as of January 1, 2013) for apartments with the living area not exceeding 240 square meters and houses with the living area not exceeding 500 square meters, and 2.7% of the minimum wage (or 30.79 UAH) for apartments with the living area of ​​over 240 square meters and houses with the living area of over 500 square meters.
Citizens – owners of real property that is subject to tax will be notified of the tax amount and payment details starting from April 2013.