City Legislature passes ABL property tax substantial hike

City lawmakers passed on late Thursday the City’s budget for 2012 and a substantial hike (66 percent) of the ABL property tax, as well the reform of the Tax Code, late last night at a marathon session at the Buenos Aires City Legislature that had started shortly before 8pm with 31 lawmakers present.

As soon as the session started, numerous Kirchnerite groups staged a demonstration outside the Legislature building to protest against “budget cuts in social areas such as housing and education.”

Thus, the ABL hike, up to 300 percent depending on the case, will be divided according to neighborhoods. Thus the average hike will be around 66 percent, but it could reach up to 300 percent in the case of those properties whose current fiscal value represents 5 percent or less of the property’s market value.       

The hike will be in effect as of March 2012. Among the changes is that of the ABL being delivered monthly instead of every two months like in the present.

It was the right-wing PRO party that asked for the hike by explaining that the ABL property tax rates “were outdated and totally unfair.”

Likewise, the PRO party, led by business tycoon Mauricio Macri, asked for reconsidering the fiscal value of City properties which they also claim to be outdated and being the reason why the property tax was not realistic since the ABL is based on the fiscal value of a property.  

According to PRO officials, the new rates came after an intensive house-by-house assessment done in order to reevaluate the fiscal value of properties.