BUDAPEST -(Dow Jones)- Hungary's new real estate tax is unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday as it annulled the tax retroactively from the date of its launch Jan. 1.

 The court rejected the bill because it made the payer of the tax responsible for determining the commercial value of their piece of real estate.

The unilateral shifting of the uncertainty embedded in defining the commercial value to the tax payer alone goes against the notion of legal security, the court said in a release.

Starting this year, the bill meant owners of a piece of real estate worth more than 30 million forints ($156,000) as a first home, and/or a second home worth more than half of that amount, were required to pay the real-estate tax.

The court said that the commercial value--without the involvement of a state authority and with no specific deal in consideration--is highly uncertain and the difference in value could be as high as 30-40%.

Under the bill, now annulled, the tax payer defined the value of the real estate and the tax office had the right to fine them if the value set by the tax office differed by more than 10% from the value declared by the tax payer.

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