Chennai Corporation Property Tax - How to Pay Property Tax Online

Chennai, the metropolitan city of Tamil Nadu, formerly known as Madras Patnam, has long been praised as South India’s cultural epicentre. From high-rise buildings to commercial and residential plots in Chennai, it is no surprise that the city’s real estate market has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. Chennai is a humming metropolis which is witnessing a huge influx of corporates and job seekers, which is making the city’s real estate even more attractive. When it comes to real estate, owning a property, irrespective of which city you live in, comes with a lot of responsibilities. Paying the property tax on a timely basis is one such important thing which every property owner must be aware of. Here, the word property refers to all tangible assets, such as apartments, factories, godowns, shops, offices, etc.

Individuals who own a property in Chennai are subject to paying the property tax to the Chennai Corporation Property Tax office, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), on a half-yearly basis. The GCC is one of the oldest municipal bodies in the Commonwealth of Nations and one of the oldest civic bodies of a city globally, second to London. As per the guidelines, GCC adopts Reasonable Letting Value (RLV) to arrive at calculated Annual Rental Value (ARV), which is then used to calculate half-yearly property tax in Chennai city corporation limits. The Greater Chennai Corporation levies different property tax rates based on the property’s usage, residential or commercial.

How to Pay Property Tax in Chennai?

Individuals who own a piece of real estate in Chennai can pay the property tax either through online or offline mode. Following the comprehensive guide below, an individual can check and pay their property tax to the Chennai Corporation Property Tax through online or offline payment mode, ensuring timely contributions to the city’s civic developments and avoiding penalties.

How to pay property taxes offline?

To start with the assessment procedure, a property owner needs to fill out and submit an application form duly attached with relevant documents. Next, the property owner will be notified via SMS for application submission confirmation. Post this, an accessor is assigned to the case who is responsible for measuring the property and determining the taxable amount. After a successful assessment, the owner of the property is notified via a confirmation SMS.

Although the online mode of paying property tax in Chennai is becoming increasingly popular and easy, one can access their property tax offline as well. For this, you need to pay your property tax in cash or by DD/cheque addressed to the Revenue Officer, Corporation of Chennai, at any government tax collector’s office in Chennai. The extensive list of tax collector offices in Chennai can be easily retrieved online from the Greater Chennai Corporation website for property tax purposes. You can choose to pay off the property tax using any of the payment methods, namely cash, cheque or demand draft.

How to pay property taxes online?

To make the payment of property tax convenient and stress-free, the Chennai Municipal Corporation has introduced an online mode of payment for taxpayers. The GCC has introduced a digitised way of making payments online in the post-COVID world, which will make payment of property tax even more simple and quick. To do so, GCC allows taxpayers to create an account and access the value of the property online via a property tax calculator for both commercial and residential properties. The steps to paying property tax online include: -

Log on to the Greater Chennai Corporation’s official website.

Navigate to the Online Civic Services tab, where you can click on the Online Payment option.

Next, fill in all the essential information related to the property and the property owner, which includes zone number, sub number, ward number and bill number. If you wish to keep this information handy, you can check the previously filled property tax details.

In the next step, the browser will reflect the payable tax amount, which you can calculate using the property tax calculator.

You need to select the assessment period and then navigate to the payment page.

Once you pay the property tax via your preferred payment method, you will be notified of a successful payment via SMS on your registered mobile number.

Exemptions and Concessions on Chennai Property Tax

It must be noted that not every property in Chennai is liable for a property tax. Properties owned by the Central and State Ministries and buildings occupied by foreign missions are exempt from paying property tax. It must be noted that honorary consulates are considered a part of foreign missions; hence, they are subject to paying property tax annually on a half-yearly basis. Before 2018, every private educational institution in Chennai was exempted from paying the property tax, which was later revoked in March 2018 by the city council.

When it comes to concessions on property tax in Chennai, taxpayers are subject to certain tax concessions, which are mentioned below:

10% library cess is calculated from the property tax.

A 20% rebate is paid to taxpayers for structures that do not have terrace roofing.

Properties which are occupied by the owners, instead of leasing or renting out, are eligible for a 25% rebate on monthly rental value.

A commercial property occupied by the owner receives a rebate in the monthly rental value, which is less than 10% in most cases.

After the first four years of the property completion, a rebate of 1% is offered annually. The maximum rebate in such cases is 25%.

Things to Keep in Mind While Paying Property Tax

If you are looking for land for sale in villivakkam or any other prime location in Chennai, it is important to keep all the information related to property tax payments handy. The most important tips include:

Keep the property tax bill ready.

Provide a valid ID proof to avoid application rejection.

Property owners in Chennai can use a property tax calculator to verify the actual payable amount.

Keep the due dates of property tax payments to make timely payments.

Property tax paid after the due date is subject to penalty.

Paying property taxes to the Chennai Corporation Property Tax on a timely basis is a crucial responsibility for property owners. Following the aforementioned payment methods via online or offline payment modes to file property tax in Chennai, one can pay their property tax without delay and with much ease.