Report on the Property Transfer Tax Regime in Afghanistan. Land Titling and Economic Restructuring in Afghanistan Project

摘要

One of the most important goals of the LTERA Project is to make the recording of property rights in Afghanistan as efficient, transparent and inexpensive as possible. Comparative studies of land administration practices have identified the cost, complexity, and time involved in registering properties as the most important factor in explaining the low level of compliance with property registration systems. Afghanistan currently rates poorly in all three of these categories as compared with other countries. Accordingly, the LTERA project is currently addressing all three of these obstacles. High recording taxes and fees impose an impediment to the smooth functioning of property registration by (u1) creating a disincentive to register property through the formal system, and (2) creating incentives for rent-seeking behavior by property registration officials. This study is intended to accomplish the following objectives: document the amount of public revenue obtained through the current transfer tax system; estimate the extent of compliance with the current registration system; propose a revised system that will increase the level of compliance with a reduced level of taxation and produce a comparable amount of revenue.