City of Kigali officials have told The New Times that they will, from Monday, January 16, to January 20, provide detailed explanations on who is eligible for land tax exemption, and who is not, so as to avoid confusion.
This follows earlier reports which indicated that plots of land in the city recently turned into residential zones but have not yet acquired basic infrastructure to facilitate planned settlement are likely to be exempted from paying tax.
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In the city, residential land is primarily used for building a dwelling unit for a single-family or building a multifamily condominium or apartment building.
Jean Rubangutsangabo, an urban economist at the City of Kigali, told The New Times that the status of land use on land titles as issued in 2010 when land registration started will be followed in paying taxes instead of using the land use master plan made public in 2021.
He said: "Those to pay land taxes are those whose land use has been changed on land titles to residential purposes based on the land use master plan.
"Those who have agriculture as land use on their land titles and have not changed the use of this land for residential purposes, according to the land use master plan, will not pay land taxes.”
Rubangutsangabo said that most of these plots of land are still being used for agriculture.
Landowners whose land titles still have the status of use for agriculture yet the new master plan indicates the use for industries, commercial projects, and others, he noted, also do not have to pay land tax.
"In fact, paying land taxes is not based on master plan information. It is based on information on land titles. We will dedicate the next whole week to a campaign to clarify those who are eligible for land tax exemption. Every sector will have a day to gather people and raise awareness,” he said.
Warning against fraud
City officials warned landowners who changed the use of their land from agriculture to residential, on land titles, but still want to benefit from land tax exemption.
"They have been complaining but they want to benefit from land tax exemption fraudulently,” Rubangutsangabo said.
He explained that once the status of the land use on the land title is changed, it is automatically changed in the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) system.
"That is when RRA has to tax them,” he said.
Jean Paulin Uwitonze, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Taxpayers Service and Communication Division, told The New Times that land in residential zones, as appears on land titles and the master plan, with properties such as residential houses but without basic infrastructure are exempted from property tax.