Tax on the sale of real estate. New real estate sales tax
Sellers of real estate, having received income from the transaction, are required to pay personal income tax in the amount of 13%. Tax collection is a procedure under the strict control of the state. However, the quality of its implementation, according to experts, due to a number of relaxations in modern legislation, is not up to par. Very many citizens on completely legal grounds evade paying taxes. And many, in turn, overpay, not knowing about the significant benefits that the state guarantees to participants in the real estate market. What should be kept in mind when selling an apartment? What is the most correct way to pay tax when selling real estate?
General principles of taxation for the sale of apartments
Experts identify the following basic principles of taxation of real estate sales transactions in accordance with Russian law:
- Personal income tax in the amount of 13% of the amount received from the buyer of housing is accrued and payable if the apartment was owned by the seller for less than 3 years;
- the former owner of the real estate is obliged to submit a declaration in the appropriate form to the territorial office of the Federal Tax Service no later than April 30 of the year that follows when the apartment purchase and sale transaction was completed;
- the calculated personal income tax must be fully paid by the citizen before July 15 of the year when the declaration is submitted.
Deductions for the sale of real estate
The laws of the Russian Federation define a certain kind of benefits guaranteed to real estate sellers. It comes from the so-called tax deductions. They represent the amount by which you can reduce the amount of money received from the sale of real estate. Deductions, therefore, are for both types of transactions - sale, purchase of real estate. Tax, however, is paid on only one of them.
Now the deduction is 1 million rubles. The final tax on the sale of real estate is calculated using very simple mathematical formulas. Consider an example.
Citizen Ivanov sold an apartment for 2.5 million rubles. By default, he must pay personal income tax in the amount of 13% of this amount, that is, 325 thousand. However, he decided to exercise his legal right to receive a tax deduction in the amount of 1 million. Therefore, the actual taxable base will be 1.5 million rubles. Ivanov, therefore, will have to pay the state 195 thousand rubles.
You can spend 1 million rubles of deductions both at the expense of one purchase and sale transaction, and on the basis of several, but only during the year. If the amount of income received from the sale of real estate has not reached 1 million, then no taxes need to be paid (but at the same time, the declaration must be submitted before April 30).
Another important deduction mechanism is the inclusion in the "formula" of confirmed amounts related to the cost of acquiring an apartment. That is, if, for example, Ivanov, who sold an apartment for 2.5 million rubles, bought it before, say, for 2.7, then he has the right to reflect this amount in the form of 3-personal income tax (attaching supporting documents - extracts, contracts, etc.) and owe nothing to the state at all. Tax on the sale of real estate in this case is not paid.
Deductions for shared and joint ownership
If the apartment being sold is owned by two or more persons on the basis of shared or joint ownership, then a deduction of 1 million rubles. distributed among them. If we are talking about the first option of ownership - then in accordance with the percentage distribution indicated in the certificates of ownership. In the second case - by agreement. If a compromise cannot be reached, then through the courts. The agreement that the co-owners are ready to delimit their interests according to certain percentage distributions is considered reached when each of them signs a contract for the sale of real estate. As a rule, no additional papers confirming the "compromise" are required.
At the same time, persons who have the right to own a share in an apartment have the right to sell their part of the property without the consent of the co-owners and at the same time receive a deduction in full, individually. Of course, the responsibility for paying tax on the sale of real estate in this case is completely individual.
Personal income tax: 13% or 30%?
In the community of realtors and citizens involved in real estate transactions, the question sometimes arises: why in some cases the tax rate on transactions is 30%? What real estate sales tax is so taxing? The answer is simple. This figure is for non-residents of the Russian Federation. They, as a rule, are foreign nationals who have decided to sell their property in Russia.
But there are also cases when citizens of the Russian Federation are also recognized as non-residents. The fact is that a person who does not live in the territory of his country for more than 183 days a year, regardless of whether he has national Russian citizenship, is recognized as a non-resident. His duty is to pay income tax much higher than if he lived in the Russian Federation for more than six months. And one more important nuance. If there is a sale of real estate by a non-resident, taxes are not offset by any deductions. The terms of their payments remain the same, the procedure for reporting to the Federal Tax Service is the same.
What if you do not provide a declaration?
For such an area as the purchase and sale of real estate, taxes are the most important aspect. And therefore, the relevant departments are quite strict in relation to the policy of tracking the movement of funds in the framework of transactions with apartments. Therefore, if the seller of real estate does not submit a declaration reflecting the amounts received for the sale of housing within the prescribed period, then in accordance with Article 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, he will face a fine equal to 5% of the tax (or the amount that was not paid), accrued every month from the moment the documents are submitted to the Federal Tax Service (but its maximum value cannot exceed 30% of the debt to the state, and its minimum amount is 1 thousand rubles).
What if you don't pay tax?
If the real estate seller has not paid the calculated personal income tax, the Federal Tax Service will issue a requirement to deposit the appropriate amount of money, charge a fine (20% of the tax amount) and penalties (as a percentage equal to 1/300 of the Central Bank refinancing rate - they are charged daily until there is a delay).
Do retirees need to pay taxes?
There is a version that pensioners are exempted from paying personal income tax for the proceeds from the sale of an apartment. This is not true. Income from the sale of housing in terms of tax legislation is equal to salary. The state does not provide any benefits for real estate sales tax to pensioners. In addition, for them, the obligations to submit the 3-NDFL declaration to the Federal Tax Service on time, as well as the timely payment of the calculated amounts, are exactly the same as for working people. Of course, the rule remains relevant, under which the tax on the sale of real estate for less than 3 years in the property is not paid.
How to file a declaration?
There are three main options for submitting the 3-NDFL form, which reflects the figures for real estate transactions, to the territorial body of the Federal Tax Service. Firstly, a person can do this by contacting the department personally, secondly, by writing a power of attorney endorsed by a notary, and thirdly, by sending the form electronically through the State Services (having previously registered there).
Will there be a new tax soon?
Among experts and some media, there is information that a new tax on the sale of real estate will soon appear in Russia. Or, at least, significant amendments will be made to the current legislation. What can be discussed here? What is the probability that the year in which the new real estate tax will be introduced is 2015?
In 2014, a bill is under public discussion to amend the existing scheme for levying tax on the sale of real estate. We are talking about the fact that personal income tax is calculated based on the cadastral value of housing. This wording, experts emphasize, is still indicative. But the specific goal of the legislator is clear: the authorities want to “whitewash” transactions in which the value of the object included in the real estate sale agreement is lower than the real price of the apartment (this is done in order to “fit” in the 1 million tax deduction or use it to the maximum ). About this, the cadastral value of housing, the legislator believes, should more or less correspond to the market value (now it is, as a rule, significantly lower).
What is the proposed mechanism of the law in comparison with the current procedures? Let's look at a few examples.
Citizen Ivanov, having drawn up an equity participation agreement, invested 700 thousand rubles in the construction of the house. Two years later, the contractor commissioned housing. By that time, the market price of Ivanov’s apartment had risen to 2.5 million. He wanted to sell it, but in the contract it was necessary to prescribe a price equal to 1.7 million. From this amount, in accordance with current legislation, he will be able to deduct 700 thousand for expenses for share construction, as well as reduce it by the required deduction in the amount of 1 million. Thus, Ivanov completely “closes” the revenue officially received under the contract so as not to pay personal income tax. According to the current norms of the law, everything that Ivanov conceived can and should work out.
Amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which are currently being discussed, may force a citizen to pay personal income tax in any case. The fact is that, in accordance with the cadastral revaluation, the cost of an apartment can be, for example, 2.2 million rubles. This is 500 thousand rubles. more than in the contract of sale drawn up by Ivanov and his buyer. And from these 500 thousand, the seller will be required to pay the required personal income tax in the amount of 13%.
There is an option, as experts say, that the legislator will introduce some kind of relaxation in his "formulas". We are talking about the so-called "reducing factor", which is multiplied by the cadastral valuation of real estate. Now the law includes an indicator equal to 0.7. In the case of the transaction of citizen Ivanov, the final figure will be obtained by multiplying 2.5 by 0.7. That is 1.54 million rubles. Which, in principle, should suit Ivanov - in his contract, the numbers are even higher than this. But what if his apartment cost not 2.5 million, but all 4? In this case, the cadastral valuation would most likely be close to the market one. And then the real estate seller would have had to fork out heavily.
Many experts, as well as representatives of legislative circles themselves, at the same time, say that the "reducing factor" may not be approved at all. It is also possible to give regional parliaments the authority to determine the appropriate figure, motivating them, as experts say, with the fact that all proceeds from the payment of personal income tax based on the cadastral value will remain in the budget of the subject.
The deadline for public discussion of the bill is October 30, 2014. Then it will be submitted for consideration by the deputies of the State Duma. It is likely that already in 2015 the amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation will come into force.
New law: benefits and concessions
As we can see, the state decided to carry out a thorough intervention in such a phenomenon as the purchase and sale of real estate. Taxes, as the authorities probably expect, should be collected more actively in this direction. At some points, meanwhile, the policy of the legislator allows a number of concessions. Despite the fact that the amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation have not yet been adopted, some of their nuances related to benefits and concessions for real estate transactions have already been made public. Let's designate some of them.
It will be possible not to pay personal income tax at all if a citizen sells his only housing (or that which had this status over the past 12 months before the sale). True, the maximum cost of an apartment should not be more than 5 million rubles. It is also assumed that the currently existing norm, which gives the right to exemption from personal income tax upon the sale of real estate, namely, 3 years of ownership, will remain.
New law: expert opinion
Many market experts doubt that the departments responsible for implementing the norms of the new law will be able to form a correct algorithm for cadastral valuation. Experts admit that they are not very clear where the numbers will come from. Quite possible, experts say, are discrepancies in the methods used by different "appraisers". There is a version that the new law will have a negative impact on the primary real estate market, as the investment attractiveness of shared construction will decrease. Ultimately, the result can be an increase in the value of real estate in all segments.
At the same time, there is also an opinion among experts that reforms are needed. And it is precisely in the direction of tightening monitoring of transactions. There is no point in raising or lowering rates. Given the huge number of "gray transactions" it becomes absolutely not important what tax is imposed on the sale of real estate - it is not paid at all.
Responsibility for "gray deals" today
A reasonable question arises: is it really impossible for those "gray schemes" that the authorities are trying to "whiten" to be identified and suppressed on legal grounds today? Do all those "frauds" associated with the indication of understated figures in real estate purchase and sale agreements not imply any responsibility?
According to experts, the Federal Tax Service does not have a well-established algorithm for identifying such transactions. If only because, from a legal point of view, the tax authorities cannot have any claims against the participants in the real estate market. The buyer and the seller constitute two perfectly legal contracts. The first is the main one, it indicates the amount of up to 1 million. This paper is for tax officials. The second contract reflects, in turn, not a real estate transaction, but the buyer's compensation for the seller's costs associated with "improving the appearance of the apartment." In fact, it is a receipt for the acceptance and transfer of funds. This tax treaty, as a rule, does not require (and the amounts prescribed in it do not officially appear anywhere).
At the same time, non-public work in this direction can be carried out in the structures of the Federal Tax Service. In particular, there are facts that the central office of this department from time to time sends letters to its territorial divisions stating that it is necessary to create special functional units - precisely with the aim of combating citizens' evasion of paying personal income tax when selling housing in full.
According to one of these documents, which came into the possession of some Russian media, the regional structures of the tax service were ordered to study sales contracts and conduct inquiries - in the form of visits to taxpayers at home, conducting interviews. If "gray schemes" are revealed - to charge the "correct" amounts of personal income tax (based on an independent assessment of the cost of the apartment) and at the same time fine citizens.
By the way, many experts are impressed by the approach to control over how real estate is being sold in Ukraine. Taxes there, just like ours, are not small - they can reach up to 15%. And therefore, in order to minimize the likelihood of "gray transactions", the Ukrainian authorities have recently introduced a rule: notaries certifying contracts for the sale of housing are required to check information on an independent market valuation of a property in a "cloud" database. If no information is found online, then the notary does not have the right to certify documents.
The relevance of the procedures for identifying "gray schemes", experts believe, has especially increased in connection with amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation that regulate property deductions for real estate buyers. The fact is that until January 1, 2014, apartment purchasers had the right to use the tax deduction only once and for a single property. If they bought housing, and the amount of 1 million was indicated in the contract, then all they could count on was 13% of this amount.
Therefore, many buyers were not satisfied with the "gray schemes" and they asked the sellers to draw up contracts with real numbers. But after the Tax Code was amended, it became possible to receive a property deduction from any number of real estate transactions. And now buyers, in principle, do not care what amount appears in the contract of sale. It does not matter to them what tax the sellers want to pay on the sale of real estate and whether they want to do it at all.
Transactions involving legal entities
Let us briefly consider aspects related to the taxation of transactions in which real estate sellers are legal entities (business companies, etc.). The fee calculation scheme here, of course, differs from that typical for individuals. But it is quite understandable and logical. If we are talking about such a phenomenon as the sale of real estate by a legal entity, taxes are paid here in two types.
First, it is VAT (18%). Secondly, it is a corporate income tax (20%). No deductions are provided. At the same time, if an organization applies the simplified tax system, then the sale of real estate is carried out according to completely different standards. There is no income tax for firms under the "simplified" system, and the proceeds from the sale of property are equated to commercial ones. According to the norms for the simplified tax system, the company will have to pay 6% of the proceeds from the sale or 15% of the difference between the proceeds and the cost of purchasing this property.
Similar rules also apply to individual entrepreneurs. If they work under the simplified tax system, then they pay 6% of income or 15% of the "difference" for the sale of property. Under the general taxation system, you have to pay VAT and income tax. True, it is important that the receipt of funds from the buyer goes through an officially registered bank account. If an individual entrepreneur sells real estate through a "regular" bank account, then he will have to pay personal income tax as an individual. True, and the deduction in this case can be used.
