Real estate sellers, having received income from the transaction, are required to pay personal income tax in the amount of 13%. Tax collection is a procedure under strict state control. However, the quality of its implementation, experts say, is not up to the mark due to a number of exemptions in modern legislation. Too many citizens, on completely legal grounds, evade taxes. And many, in turn, overpay, not knowing about the significant benefits that the state guarantees to participants in the real estate market. What you need to keep in mind when selling an apartment? What is the most correct way to pay tax when selling real estate?
General principles of taxation on the sale of apartments
Experts identify the following basic principles of taxation of real estate transactions in accordance with Russian law:
- Personal income tax in the amount of 13% of the amount received from the buyer of the home is charged and payable if the apartment has been owned by the seller for less than 3 years;
- the former property owner is obliged to submit to the territorial office of the Federal Tax Service a declaration in the appropriate form no later than April 30 of the year following the transaction of the sale of the apartment;
- The calculated personal income tax must be paid in full by the citizen until July 15 of the year when the declaration is submitted.
Property Sales Deductions
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 a figure by which you can reduce the amount of cash received from the sale of real estate. Deductions, therefore, are for both types of transactions - sale, purchase of real estate. The tax, however, is paid only for 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 the 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 use the legal right to receive a tax deduction 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 should be paid (but at the same time, a declaration must be submitted before April 30).
Another major deduction mechanism is the inclusion in the "formula" of confirmed amounts associated with 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 (enclosing supporting documents - extracts, agreement, etc.) and not be indebted to the state at all. The tax on the sale of real estate in this case is not paid.
Deductions for shared and joint ownership
If the sold apartment is owned by two or more persons on the basis of shared or joint ownership, then a deduction of 1 million rubles. distributed between them. If we are talking about the first version of ownership, then in accordance with the percentage distribution specified in the certificates of ownership. In the second case - by agreement. If a compromise fails, then through the courts.The agreement that co-owners are ready to differentiate their interests according to one or another percentage distribution is considered reached when each of them signs a real estate sale agreement. As a rule, no additional papers confirming a “compromise” are required.
At the same time, persons with ownership of a share in the apartment have the right to sell their part of the property without agreement with the co-owners and at the same time receive the deduction in full, individually. Of course, the responsibility for paying tax when selling real estate in this case is completely individual.
PIT: 13% or 30%?
In the community of realtors and citizens involved in real estate transactions, the question sometimes arises: why in some cases tax rate for transactions equal to 30%? What tax on the sale of real estate goes so burdensome? The answer is simple. This indicator is for non-residents of the Russian Federation. They are usually foreign nationals who have decided to sell their property in Russia.
But there are also frequent 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 his national Russian citizenship, is recognized as a non-resident. His duty is to pay income tax much more than if he lived in Russia for more than six months. And one more important nuance. If a non-resident sells the property, taxes are not offset by any deductions. The terms of their payments remain the same, the reporting procedure to the Federal Tax Service - the same.
What if you do not submit a declaration?
For such an area as buying and selling real estate, taxes are the most important aspect. And therefore, the relevant departments are sufficiently strict regarding the policy of monitoring the movement of funds in the framework of transactions with apartments. Therefore, if the seller of real estate does not submit a declaration within the prescribed period reflecting the amounts received for the sale of housing, then in accordance with Article 119 of the Tax Code he will receive a penalty equal to 5% of the tax (or the amount that has not been paid), calculated 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 size is 1 thousand roubles.).
What if you do not pay tax?
If the seller of real estate has not paid the calculated personal income tax, the Federal Tax Service will demand the payment of the appropriate amount of money, charge a fine (20% of the tax amount) and interest (in percent equal to 1/300 of the Central Bank refinancing rate - they are charged daily until there is a delay).
Do retirees need to pay tax?
There is a version that pensioners are exempted from paying personal income tax for revenue 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 property sales tax to pensioners. In addition, for them, the obligation to transfer the 3-NDFL declaration to the Federal Tax Service on time, as well as the timely payment of the calculated amounts, is exactly the same as for working people. Of course, the rule remains that the tax on the sale of real estate 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, reflecting 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 letter of attorney to someone notarized by a notary, thirdly, by sending an electronic form via State Services (after registering there).
Will there be a new tax soon?
Among experts and some media reports appear that in Russia will soon appear a new tax on the sale of real estate. Or at least significant amendments will be made to current legislation.What can we talk about here? What is the likelihood that the year in which the new property sales tax will be introduced is 2015?
In 2014, a bill was under discussion in the public sphere that was called to amend the existing tax collection scheme for the sale of real estate. The point is that personal income tax should be calculated on the basis of the cadastral value of housing. This wording, experts emphasize, is still indicative. But the specific goal of the lawmaker is clear: the authorities want to “whiten” transactions in which the value of the property included in the contract for the sale of real estate is lower than the real price of the apartment (this is done in order to “meet” the 1 million tax deduction or use it to the maximum ) About this, the cadastral value of housing, according to the legislator, should more or less correspond to the market (now it is usually much lower).
What is the proposed mechanism for the operation of the law in comparison with the current procedures? Let's look at a few examples.
Citizen Ivanov, having drawn up a share agreement, invested 700 thousand rubles in the development of the house. Two years later, the contracting company commissioned housing. By that time, the market price of Ivanov’s apartment had grown to 2.5 million. He wanted to sell it, but in the contract to write down the cost equal to 1.7 million. From this amount, in accordance with current legislation, he will be able to deduct 700 thousand in expenses for shared 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 intended could and should succeed.
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 price 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 prescribed personal income tax in the amount of 13%.
There is an option, experts say, that the legislator will introduce some kind of relief in his “formulas”. This is the so-called "reduction factor", which is multiplied by cadastral valuation of real estate. Now in the law appears 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. What, in principle, should arrange for Ivanov - in his agreement the figures are even more than this. But what if his apartment would not cost 2.5 million, but all 4? In this case, the cadastral valuation would most likely be close to market. And then the real estate seller would have to fork out thoroughly.
At the same time, many experts, as well as representatives of the legislative circles themselves, say that the “lowering coefficient” may not be approved at all. An option is also possible in order to empower the regional parliaments to determine the corresponding figure, motivating, as experts say, that all the proceeds from the payment of personal income tax on the basis of the cadastral value will remain in the budget of the subject.
Dates of public discussion of the bill - until October 30, 2014. Then it will be referred to State Duma deputies. It is likely that already in 2015, amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation will come into force.
New law: benefits and concessions
As we can see, the state has decided to thoroughly intervene in such a phenomenon as buying and selling real estate. Taxes, most likely expected by the authorities, 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 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. Denote some of them.
Personal income tax can not be paid at all if a citizen sells his only housing (or that had this status for the last 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 current norm, giving the right to exemption from personal income tax on the fact of the sale of real estate, namely, 3 years in the property, will remain.
New law: expert opinion
Many market experts doubt that the agencies responsible for implementing the new law will be able to formulate the correct cadastral valuation algorithm. Experts admit that they are not very clear where the numbers will come from. Differences in the methods used by various "appraisers" are quite possible, experts say. 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 may 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. Moreover, it is in the direction of tightening monitoring of transactions. Raising or lowering bets is pointless. Given the huge number of "gray deals" it becomes absolutely irrelevant what tax is levied on the sale of real estate - it is not paid at all.
Responsibility for gray deals today
A reasonable question arises: can it really be that the "gray schemes" that the authorities are striving to "whiten" cannot be detected and suppressed legally today? Are all those "frauds" associated with the indication in the contracts of sale of real estate understated figures, do not imply any responsibility?
According to experts, the Federal Tax Service does not have a well-developed algorithm for identifying such transactions. At least because, from a legal point of view, the tax authorities cannot have any complaints against real estate market participants. The buyer and seller make two completely 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, in turn, does not reflect a real estate transaction, but the buyer’s compensation for the seller’s costs associated with "improving the type of apartment." In fact, it is a receipt for the transfer of funds. This tax treaty, as a rule, does not require (and the amounts specified in it do not appear officially anywhere).
At the same time, non-public work in this direction may 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 that it is necessary to create special functional units - precisely in order to combat the evasion of citizens from personal income tax when selling housing in full.
According to one of these documents, which fell into the possession of some Russian media outlets, the regional tax service structures were ordered to study sales contracts and conduct investigations of an inquiring nature - in the form of visits to taxpayers home, and conducting conversations. If the “gray schemes” are identified, charge the “correct” personal income tax amount (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 controlling how real estate sales in Ukraine are going. The taxes there, as well as ours, are not small - they can reach up to 15%. And therefore, in order to minimize the likelihood of “gray deals”, the Ukrainian authorities have recently introduced a norm: notaries certifying purchase and sale agreements for housing are required to check information on an independent market valuation of the property in the “cloud” database. If information is not found online, then a notary has no right to certify documents.
The relevance of the procedures for identifying “gray schemes”, experts believe, has especially increased due to amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation regulating property deductions for property buyers. The fact is that until January 1, 2014, apartment purchasers had the right to use the tax deduction only once for a single property. If they bought housing, and the contract indicated an amount of 1 million, then all they could count on was 13% of this amount.
Therefore, many buyers were not satisfied with the “gray schemes” and they asked sellers to draw up contracts with real numbers. But after amendments were made to the Tax Code, to receive property deduction made possible with any number of real estate transactions. And now, buyers, in principle, do not care what amount appears in the contract of sale. They don’t care what kind of property sales tax the sellers want to pay and whether they want to do it at all.
Transactions involving legal entities
Let us briefly consider aspects related to taxation of transactions in which sellers of real estate are legal entities (business companies, etc.). The charge calculation scheme here, of course, differs from that which is characteristic of 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 of two types.
Firstly, it is VAT (18%). Secondly, it is the corporate income tax (20%). No deductions are provided. However, if the organization uses the simplified tax system, then real estate is sold according to completely different standards. There is no “simplified” tax on profit, and the proceeds from the sale of property are equated to commercial. 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 apply also to individual entrepreneurs. If they work according to the simplified tax system, then they pay for the sale of property 6% of income or 15% of the "difference". Under the general taxation system, VAT and income tax must be paid. 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, he will have to pay personal income tax as an individual. True, you can use the deduction in this case.
