The one charged with paying the tax in the Land Patent Right (Musataha) contract

A study in Iraqi law

الملخص

It is quite obvious that taxes are among the basic revenues in most of the world countries, regardless of their political and economic systems and that the real estate tax which is a type of direct taxes, is imposed on the income that is generated from the real estate deal. The subject matter of musataha contracts is essentially income-producing land and such an income is the subject to the real estate tax. This study is entitled "The Tax Payer in Musataha Contract: A Study in Iraqi Law” and is an attempt to clarify the issue of interpretation and application of the first paragraph in article (10) of ‘the Real Estate Tax Law No. (162) of (1959)’ in respect of the imposition of taxes on real estates that are basically built under musataha contracts. Due to the fact that the abovementioned article does not explicitly refer to musataha but to the long lease instead and due to the many similarities between musataha and long lease, the tax departments in Kurdistan Region, may interpret the article as that the taxes which are imposed on the owner of the long lease, cover the right owner in musataha contract as well. Hence, such a serious issue needs to be the subject of an academic investigation to be clear enough for the tax departments in Kurdistan Region. In doing so, the researchers try to deal with the subject matter through two chapters and finally conclude with that paragraph (1) of article (10) of the Real Estate Tax Law which is in force now should be amended because its implementation in the tax departments, constitutes an explicit violation of paragraph (1), article (28) of the Iraqi Constitution (2005), when the tax is collected from musatih (the person who invests in the land) but the land ownership in musataha contracts, belongs to the government institutions which are exempted from paying taxes.