Thanks to Mark who sent me this below. If anyone has any help or advise, can you put in the comments below.
I have been following this issue very closely since I am looking to purchase property that would have rentals part of the year.
Your article mentioned that 2/3 of all owners in a condominium can object to AL being carried out.
There is another provision which was not mentioned that you might want to add: for someone applying for a new AL license, you must demonstrate that 100 % of the current condominium owners have voted UNANIMOUSLY to approve AL activity in the building.
I’m attaching a Question/Answer page from the government explaining this provision.
Regarding the new 15% tax: I’ve asked around and virtually no one has any understanding of this. The technical language in the original law is impossible for a lay person to understand….the concepts are too convoluted for us mortals!! My question is: 15% of WHAT? It’s definitely not 15 % of your income from AL. So whether this is just a nuisance tax or a very burdensome tax seems to be unknown right now.
I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about this law, especially about the tax. One person told me Madeira was exempt, but I have no idea where that information came from
One thing that I learned is that only condominium units, not individual houses, are subject to the 15% tax.
If you should come across more information about the tax, known as CEAL, please do let me know. Or if you come across someone who really has a full understanding of how the tax is computed, could you possibly put me in touch with that person?
From the message above, I’ve learned a few more things since my original msg:
a)there is a chance a particular council can be exempt from the tax if certain criteria about housing availability can be met; a complex computation will required;
b) the statistics department of the government will be required to release, in early December, the computation of the index against which the 15 % figure will be applied.
c) the tax may eventually be declared unconstitutional since all those who are liable for it will pay the same amount, regardless of how much or how little income they earn from AL activities.