Angola – New Property Tax Code and Revision of General Tax Code

A New Property Tax Code has been approved by Law No. 20/2020, of 9 July 2020, which will enter into force on August 8th, 2020.

This legal statute repeals the Urban Property Tax Code and derogates all the rules foreseen in the Real Estate Transfer Tax (SISA) Code related to the transfer of real state.

Property Tax is levied on the patrimonial value or the rental income of urban and rustic buildings, as well as on the transfer of real estate, whether free or onerous. The Property Tax foresees progressive rates up to 0.6% and the application of 50% of the tax on unoccupied buildings. Property Tax rate on real estate transfers is 2%.

The rate of Property Tax for leased buildings is 25% of taxable income (the taxable income is equal to the rents actually received net of 40% of charges and expenses of the property).

General deadlines for tax payment:

• Property Tax on the ownership of real estate – until the end of March (or 6 installments upon request).
• Property Tax on rental income – applying until the last working day of the month following the withholding or until the end of March if the withholding mechanism is not applicable.
• Property Tax levied on onerous or free transfers – until the last working day of the month following the occurrence of the transfer/act.

On the same day, several amendments to the General Tax Code have been approved by Law No. 21/2020, which entered into force on the day of its publication.

Amongst the amendments we highlight the following:

• Introduction of a General Anti-abuse rule – which established that acts performed in any circumstance to obtain a tax advantage through the abuse of legal rules, taking into account all relevant facts and circumstances, are disregarded for tax purposes.
• Binding rulings have a personal natures, only binding the tax administration in relation to the recipient of the same.
• Increase of the minimum amount of taxation from 5,000 AOA to 1,000 AOA.
• The submittal of amended tax returns is subject to the payment of a fee to be defined in a special statute.
• Extension of the deadlines granted to taxpayers to 30 days (to file the prior hearing, the administrative appeals, hierarchical appeals, among others).
• Extension of the time limit for deciding the administrative appeals and hierarchical appeals to 60 days.
• Clarification that the period for retention of documents corresponds to 5 years.
• Reduction of the fine amount to 50% in case of spontaneous payment (previously the reduction corresponded to 30%)
• Lifting of bank secrecy in concrete situations and with the application of an specific procedure (namely, in the case of evidence of the practice of tax crime, among others provided for in the Code).

GTU will keep monitoring these matters closely and will provide the latest information through our updated system which gives you online access to all the tax information you need.