How to transfer property out of company ownership?

[monet]

I was a foreigner in Croatia when I purchased a property here in the name of my d.o.o. company.
That was some years ago and I am now a Croatian citizen but the property is still owned by my company.
I would now like to sell my company but it appears that I must purchase the property as an individual from the company and in doing so pay 5% purchase tax.
But what if I was to close the company down? Would the property be transferred into my name without having to purchase it as I am the sole director?
Of course as I understand, in an ideal situation someone should purchase the company along with the property and they will also avoid the 5% purchase tax as well as I will get rid of everything in one go but under the current circumstances no one is willing to pay a fair price for the property so I'd rather keep it until such time that I can sell it for the right price or perhaps decide to make use of it.

[Ribaric]

Aug 19, 2013 11:54:09 GMT 1 monet said:

I was a foreigner in Croatia when I purchased a property here in the name of my d.o.o. company.
That was some years ago and I am now a Croatian citizen but the property is still owned by my company.
I would now like to sell my company but it appears that I must purchase the property as an individual from the company and in doing so pay 5% purchase tax.
But what if I was to close the company down? Would the property be transferred into my name without having to purchase it as I am the sole director?
Of course as I understand, in an ideal situation someone should purchase the company along with the property and they will also avoid the 5% purchase tax as well as I will get rid of everything in one go but under the current circumstances no one is willing to pay a fair price for the property so I'd rather keep it until such time that I can sell it for the right price or perhaps decide to make use of it.

As I understand it, you must pay the 5% transfer tax (5% of what the tax inspector thinks is it's market value) if you buy/take a property from anywhere with the possible exception of inheritance (under Croatian law, that can only be from next of kin). If you close the company then you must dispose of it's assets which means .. sell them. To sell, there must be a buyer and so... 5%. You can't give it to yourself because the tax is to "transfer" the property so you can't get out of it that way.
I see no escape other than to keep the d.o.o. going - which costs money anyway.

[Carol]

Rib is correct. I've tried to think of a way round this but there isn't one.

There is no point in gifting the property to yourself, or selling it for 1 kn, because the tax office makes its own valuation on which to base the 5%.

The only thing you can be sure of is that the tax office's valuation will not be lower than the price stated on the sales contract.