Paying Annual IUP Tax on your property in Cape Verde

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For anyone who owns a property in Cape Verde, please take a read of the information below that I have just seen on the Town hall website of Sal. If you don’t know if you have paid any annual IUP tax (similar to the Council tax in the UK), please check as there are penalties being added to unpaid annual taxes.

Thank you for your attention…

This website has been created by the Câmara Municipal do Sal, the local Cape Verde government authority for administering Sal Island, in order to clearly explain “Imposto Único sobre o Património” or I.U.P., an annual tax, which must be paid by all owners of property or land in Cape Verde.

The Câmara Municipal do Sal is the sole entity responsible for collecting I.U.P. due on property and land in Sal Island and this tax is the primary source of our annual income. Any failure to pay I.U.P. therefore constrains the local economy as it limits the provision of public services and restricts the development of improvements and additions to the existing Island infrastructure.

The Câmara Municipal requires outstanding debtors to bring their I.U.P. tax payments up to date and to that end created a time limited programme, “Operation I.U.P.”, which commenced on 1 January 2017 and offered incentives to encourage debtors to make prompt voluntary payment before having to implement time consuming and costly legal recovery proceedings.

Over 1,000 debtors paid during this voluntary phase, which ended on 30 June 2019 and were able to benefit from a full exemption from the imposition of late payment penalties and statutory interest.

Accordingly the Câmara Municipal has now begun issuing out formal 90 day demands to those debtors who still have outstanding I.U.P. taxes. In the event that debtors ignore those formal demands, and fail to pay their I.U.P. taxes in full within the 90 day period, the Câmara Municipal will regrettably, but automatically, initiate legal proceedings against them in accordance with their statutory obligations.

The consequences of failing to pay all outstanding I.U.P. tax debts, once legal proceedings have been initiated, can be both;-

an increase of up to 60% in the quantum of outstanding debt to the Câmara Municipal through the addition of further statutory penalties and charges and,

in the event of continued non-payment the seizure by the Câmara Municipal of a debtors bank accounts and/or chattels and/or property assets in order that they may be liquidated or sold to settle all I.U.P. tax debts in full.

We therefore strongly urge debtors to not ignore our formal demands, to follow the instructions contained therein and make payment in the required manner in order to avoid a most unfortunate conclusion.

Câmara Municipal do Sal, 1 Julho 2019

https://www.cmsal-iup.com/english

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