In India, a property tax bill is levied by the state government and looked after by the local civic bodies (municipalities, municipal corporations, or panchayats). It is charged on an individual’s or an entity’s possession of a property. Depending on the property’s location, this tax is collected by the governing authority of that concerned jurisdiction. The property could either be a house, buildings (residential as well as commercial), or land. The property divisions for tax on property in India are:
● Land
● Improvement made to a land
● Personal property
● Intangible property
A property tax bill is also referred to as house tax or municipal tax. The sum collected through this tax is used for the maintenance of basic civic amenities of a particular area. This includes maintaining proper hygiene, sewage system, roads, street lights, and other infrastructural facilities.
Different authorities set specific rules for property or house tax levy. For example, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation or property tax rates are finalized by the authorities from a year-to-year basis. These rates are likely to vary from one council to another, depending upon the locality, services, market value of a property, and so on.
Things to know before paying property tax
A property taxpayer has to consider some essential factors before calculating the property or house tax related to ownership, locality, dimension, etc. They are –
1. Annual market value of the property
2. Type of property (residential, non-residential, commercial, billboard, vacant plot, etc.)
3. Zonal Classification
4. Built-up area of the property
5. Property’s dimensions
6. Number of floors including basements, if any
7. Built-up area of each floor
8. Electricity bills
9. Tax exemptions specified by the authorities
You can also find out how you can avail of tax benefits on loans against property or property tax. It might help you save a substantial amount of tax expenses.
How to pay a property tax bill in simple ways?
You can pay your property or municipal tax by directly visiting your concerned municipal office. It is the traditional way of paying municipal taxes. It would require you to fill up certain forms with proper details. Once that is done, you will need to submit it along with a cheque or demand draft to make the necessary payments.
This might also require you to provide some documents or their copies related to the property.
If the offline mode seems tedious to you, you can choose to pay property or house tax online. In that case, the first step will be to check if your municipal corporation has initiated the online tax-paying facility or not. If yes, this can be a far more convenient option to clear your tax dues compared to the offline mode.
To pay the dues of a property tax bill online, you will first need to gather all the details regarding your property, its location, and other such requisites. These details will also be necessary to avail a loan against property.
Once you have all the property details available, you can proceed with the online tax payment. It would involve the following steps –
● Visit the official portal of the concerned municipal corporation (For example, you will need to log in to the official NDMC portal to pay NDMC property tax).
● Look for the tab with the option of paying property tax online.
● Enter the necessary details, as asked.
● Re-check and submit the details to proceed with the online payment.
You will be shown the amount of tax due on your property before you go ahead with the payment. After that, you can easily pay the dues through online banking, credit cards, or debit cards.
Keeping your property tax dues cleared is one of the most important dos while taking a loan against property. Otherwise, you might end up facing undue delays in loan processing.
A better approach to avail such an advance is to look for pre-approved offers. These facilities help you acquire quick funds against the least hassles, and are available for financial products like loans against property and home loans. By providing your name and contact details, you can easily check the pre-approved offer online.
Property tax bills should never go ignored if you have plans to avail of a loan against property or any other such funding facility. Look into the property tax details online or reach out to the municipal authorities for tax dues clearance at the earliest. It would help you maintain your property without any kind of discrepancy.
