New Definition of a Building in Property Tax and the Requirement of Specificity of the Object of Taxation

Abstract

The article analyses a new legislative solution introduced by the legislator as part of the real estate tax, which concerns the legal definition of a building. This definition specifies the object of taxation in real estate tax. As such, it is necessary to analyse it from the point of view of meeting the statutory requirement of specificity of the object of taxation, which is the purpose of this article. Achieving this goal requires, first and foremost, demonstrating a certain degree of autonomy on the part of the tax legislator within the new framework of this definition. Next, it was necessary to analyse the elements of the definition of a building from the point of view of fulfilling the statutory requirement of specificity of the object of taxation. The analysis confirms that, in the new definition of a building, the legislator has largely fulfilled the requirement to define the object of taxation in statutory terms. This is confirmed not only by the legislative technique used in the form of a legal definition, but above all by its normative form. In the new definition, the legislator refers to the Construction Law to a much lesser extent and, in addition, indicates two scopes of this definition, which significantly clarifies the object of taxation.