13 facts about the tax deduction when buying a home that you might not know

What is a tax deduction

Every taxpayer who receives income and pays personal income tax at a rate of 13% has the right to claim preferential compensation in the event of certain expenses.
A deduction is the amount of benefit by which a citizen’s tax base is reduced. It is issued only by those citizens who are residents of the Russian Federation and receive income subject to personal income tax. All earnings that are subject to taxation as a general rule are reduced by the amount of the annual income tax. The result will be a reduced tax base. Citizens also have the right to submit an application to the territorial Federal Tax Service for compensation for the share of overpaid personal income tax.

A citizen has the right to receive a benefit both through material compensation from the territorial Federal Tax Service and from the employer by providing the necessary documents for a tax refund and an application for processing a refund. Often the list of documents includes various kinds of confirmation registers - various certificates and notifications.

Only residents of the Russian Federation receive the benefit, whose income is taxed at a rate of 13%. Those employees who are exempt from paying taxes or pay personal income tax at other rates (for example, 6%, 9%, 15%, 30%) do not have the right to draw up deductions for the reporting year.

Regulates the rules for returning money to citizens of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Types of tax deductions

Depending on the type, the package of documents required for a taxpayer to receive a tax deduction changes. An article about what a tax deduction is will help you understand the current types of deductions. The Tax Code of the Russian Federation states that taxpayers have the right to claim the following deductions:

1. Standard - Art. 218 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Employees receive standard benefits directly from their employers. Organizations act as tax agents. Standard tax deductions are issued for oneself and for children (one child, disabled children). Standard compensation is applied at the employee’s request from the beginning of the year until the salary reaches the limit of 350,000 rubles.
2. Social - Art. 219 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Compensates for overpaid personal income tax for paid training of the employee himself or his immediate family, expensive treatment, charity, formation of the funded part of a pension, or in the case of voluntary pension insurance. Such compensation is received from the employer in the current year after writing an application and providing supporting documentation (checks, contracts). The employee has the right to submit a package of documents for compensation to the territorial Federal Tax Service. They apply to the tax office only after the end of the reporting year.
3. Investment - Art. 219.1 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Those citizens who, during the reporting period, carried out transactions with securities, deposited money into a special investment account, or received profitability from transactions carried out through an individual investment account are entitled to receive it. Compensation is provided starting in 2021. They receive a refund both from the Federal Tax Service after a year and from the employer. For this purpose, an application and supporting documents are prepared.
4. Property - Art. 220 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Provided for the purchase of an apartment or other residential real estate, construction of housing, sale of property, or purchase of property from another taxpayer for state or municipal needs. The property deduction is issued either at the territorial inspectorate or at the employer, providing the necessary application and appropriate documents. Such compensation has a certain limit. The maximum for purchasing housing is 260,000 rubles (limit amount is 2,000,000 rubles × 13%). Taxpayers also compensate repaid interest on loan and mortgage agreements and agreements for refinancing previously taken loans. Limit - 390,000.00 rubles (3,000,000 rubles × 13%).
5. Professional - Art. 221 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. A professional tax deduction is provided in case of income generation by individual entrepreneurs and persons engaged in private practice (lawyers, notaries, etc.). Taxable income includes royalties and earnings under civil contracts. Receive a professional tax deduction directly from the tax agent paying the income by submitting an application and all required attachments. Compensation is also issued by inspectors of the Federal Tax Service.

How to apply for a tax deduction through an employer or the Federal Tax Service

Almost every taxpayer asks questions: how to compensate for expenses, how to restore education costs or receive social compensation. The table lists which documents are provided to the tax office to obtain a tax deduction by type of benefit.

With such documents we issue a tax deduction through the Federal Tax Service.

What circles of hell do you have to go through to get a VAT refund in practice?

What lengths do inspectors go to in order to put the squeeze on a company and not return taxes?

If you bought a car, office, commercial premises or equipment using a VAT payer legal entity and paid VAT upon purchase, then you have the right to a VAT credit or refund.

With VAT offset, everything is more or less simple - you reflect the invoice in the purchase book and, if the seller is relatively reliable and paid VAT on the sale, there will be no problems. The tax office will accept VAT as a credit. If the seller was engaged in VAT optimization, then most likely the tax office will ask you to restore the VAT indicated for offset and pay it to the budget.

The most interesting thing begins when you try to recover VAT from the budget.

The legal basis for VAT reimbursement is provided for by the Tax Code, in paragraph 2.
Art. 173 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which states that if at the end of the quarter the amount of tax deductions exceeded the VAT calculated by you (taking into account the amounts of restored VAT), then the difference can be reimbursed from the budget. This difference can be returned to your current account. In accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 9, 10 of Art. 165, paragraph 2 of Art. 173, paragraph 1, art. 176 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, VAT is refundable if the following conditions are met:

• Your accountant has submitted a declaration to the inspectorate with the amount of VAT to be refunded.
• You submitted a declaration with the amount of VAT to be refunded within a three-year period (if the period is longer, then due to the statute of limitations, the VAT will not be returned to you).
• Along with the declaration, you submitted the relevant documents (contracts, payment orders, certificates of services rendered, invoices, copies of invoices);
• You are a VAT payer and do not apply an exemption from its payment, have registered purchased goods (work, services, property rights) and use them in transactions subject to VAT, and also have a correctly executed invoice.
• The inspectorate conducted a desk audit of the declaration and confirmed the amount of VAT to be refunded in whole or in part.

The inspection has two months to do everything (clause 2 of Article 88 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), after which, if the inspection does not reveal any violations, then it is obliged to make a decision on VAT refund within 7 working days from the end of the desk audit of the declaration (clause 6 Article 6.1, paragraph 2 of Article 176 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

As a rule, after submitting documents, the first thing you will encounter is a call. They will call you, the general director.

The alarmed voice of the inspector at the other end of the phone, regardless of the amount of VAT to be reimbursed, should not scare you.
The state does not like to give anything to anyone, even if there is a law to do so, especially since each inspectorate has a tax collection plan, and your compensation prevents it from being fulfilled, and accordingly, this will affect bonuses and other professional incentives for its employees. The inspector will explain to you that you are not obligated to reimburse VAT from the budget at all, and there is no point in doing so. You will definitely be asked to exercise your right not to refund VAT, but to offset it for three years, indicating it as VAT for credit.

The inspector will definitely explain to you that by reimbursing VAT, you will attract the attention of everyone and everything, you will get noticed by the inspectorate, the Economic Crime Department, the FSB and other respected structures will be interested in you.

If you insist that you have the right to reimburse VAT, then welcome to the next circle of hell - interrogation.
The general director will be summoned for questioning by summons, sent, as a rule, through the electronic exchange system with the Federal Tax Service (Takskom, Kontur, SBIS, etc.). If the date of the interrogation is not convenient for you, do not hesitate to reschedule it. You need to bring your passport with you.

What questions are usually asked during interrogation:

1. Detailed information about you - date and place of birth, place of work, what you do, where and what income you received, where and how long you worked, what were your responsibilities.
2. Detailed information about the transaction during which the right to a VAT refund arose (where and when the contract was signed, who signed the contract, who transferred the property, why they decided to refund the VAT).
3. Detailed information about the property/services/property rights that gave you the right to a VAT refund (color, size, location, storage location, detailed description from the series “What color are the rims on a car”, questions regarding the use of property in activities subject to VAT ).
4. Detailed information about your company (what it does, when it was registered, how many people work, how you will use the refunded VAT, etc.).

You can go to the interrogation alone, with a lawyer or a representative by proxy.
It’s up to you to decide whether to go alone or not, but keep in mind that the more difficult the path you take, the more doubts the inspector has. It’s equally bad to come to an interrogation, confused and stuttering from fear, as it is to come with a lawyer or accountant and remain silent the whole time - they’ll think that you’re a figurehead. After the interrogation, the tax office will definitely take additional measures.

What they will do:

1) Inspection of the office of your organization, verification of the legal address. Here it is important to ensure the following - check the functionality of the phone, check the adequacy of the secretary so that she does not consider the calling tax inspector a prankster .

It is very important to instruct the management company/security guard/janitor that your company is located in an office center. Often the security guard does not remember that your organization is located here or tries to brush off the inspector, which will be an excellent reason to say that your organization does not have a legal address and subsequently refuse VAT reimbursement.

Be sure to check for a permanent sign on the door where your organization is located. It is better if the sign is stationary. The office must be equipped with workstations (at least one), have a computer and a printer, contain the constituent documents of your company, and be sure to have a lease agreement with the landlord. The inspectorate may also ask for documents confirming the landlord's ownership of the premises. The inspector will definitely take photographs of the premises. It is better if the inspection report indicates attesting witnesses (maybe your employees), who will then confirm that the inspection took place and the organization is located at the address.

2) Inspection of the property that you purchased and on which you are refunding VAT. The inspector will definitely inspect the property, equipment or car on which you are refunding VAT. If you are refunding VAT on a rental property, do not forget to notify the tenant about the inspector’s visit. A comment from a tenant’s employee that he doesn’t know your organization will make it extremely difficult to recover VAT. Therefore, all comments should be given by specially authorized employees who understand the essence of your relationship with the tenant.

3) Desk checks, requests and interrogations of your counterparties, VAT on services, purchased goods, which you reimburse. They may suddenly come to your counterparties and ask questions about their relationship with your organization. Particularly valuable counterparties should be warned about the possibility of such sudden visits and warned that in order to provide complete and objective information, it is better to refer to employment, not give rash answers and come to the tax office prepared and with the appropriate documents.

During the refund process, you will almost certainly be asked to bargain. What kind of bargaining is appropriate :

1. Refuse VAT and set it off. We will still not refund you anything, because the counterparty who sold you the property did not pay VAT/optimized VAT/he has gaps in the 1-2-3-4 knees.
2. Reduce the refundable VAT to the amount of X rubles (for Moscow - 5 million). As a rule, they propose to reduce it below 5 million rubles so as not to send documents for additional approval to the Office of the subject of the federation.
3. Submit an updated declaration, because we found X amount of errors here. Do not forget that when you submit any clarification, the deadline begins to run again.

If all tests are passed, the tax office will issue a decision on VAT refund, and after some time the money will be credited to your current account.
Whether or not to follow this difficult path is up to you to decide. However, remember that it makes sense to reimburse VAT if the accounting is impeccably clean and transparent and there are verified bona fide counterparties. In any other cases, be prepared to argue with the inspectorate in the courts.

VAT – 2022

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Procedure for applying for a tax deduction

The procedure and sequence of actions for each type of benefit are similar. If a citizen applies for compensation through an employer, then the application is generated directly during the reporting period. For example, when applying for a standard tax deduction, we write an application addressed to the manager and attach copies of all supporting documents (birth certificates, marriage certificates, certificates or certificates of disability, guardianship documents, etc.).

The procedure for processing a refund through the Federal Tax Service is the same for all types of deductions. The package of documents is submitted strictly after the expiration of the reporting period - the next year after the purchase of housing, payment for education or treatment, transactions with securities, etc. The application is submitted throughout the year following the reporting year; the filing deadline is not regulated in any way. Together with the application for a tax deduction, a declaration in form 3-NDFL is submitted as part of the package of supporting documents. Federal Tax Service specialists have approved the procedure for filing a tax deduction and the list of documents for filing a 3-NDFL declaration in 2021:

• passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation;
• certificate of income from the employer in form 2-NDFL;
• all necessary copies (agreements, checks, certificates, certificates, certificates of interest and amounts paid, payment orders).

A citizen has the right to choose whether to return overpaid income tax to his current account or offset it against future periods.

Documents are submitted directly to the tax inspector. All originals are duplicated with copies, along with copies - all originals for review. The applicant has the right to submit an application through the taxpayer’s personal account on the website https://www.nalog.ru.

IMPORTANT!

In 2021, the 3-NDFL declaration form was updated. It was approved by order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. ED-7-11 / [email protected] dated 08/28/2020. According to the new rules, an application for a credit or refund of overpaid income tax is submitted as part of the 3-NDFL declaration.

You can submit documents for a tax refund for a calendar year only after its end.

The 3-NDFL tax refund declaration is always submitted for the entire calendar year, regardless of the month in which the housing was purchased and in which months the taxes were paid. At the same time, you can submit a declaration for a calendar year only at the end of it (clause 7 of Article 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). You cannot submit a tax refund return for a calendar year before its end.

Example: Titarenko E.S. I bought an apartment in January 2021. In February 2021, he quit his job. Other income in 2021 from Titarenko E.S. not expected. After the dismissal of Titarenko E.S. I wanted to immediately file a tax return and, due to the deduction, return the tax paid in January-February 2021.

However, Titarenko E.S. can do this. cannot, since he needs to wait until the end of 2021, and only then submit the 3-NDFL declaration for 2021 to the tax office.

Note: You can take advantage of the opportunity to receive a deduction through your employer without waiting for the end of the calendar year. Read more in our article “Obtaining a property deduction through an employer.”

Return deadlines

A declaration certifying the taxpayer’s income and confirming the amount of income tax paid is submitted to the Federal Tax Service after the expiration of the reporting period in which payment for the service occurred, which makes it possible to return personal income tax.

In ch. 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation explains how to submit documents for a tax deduction: submit documentation in paper or electronic form (through the taxpayer’s personal account) throughout the entire year following the reporting year. Memo to taxpayers: benefits (regardless of their type) are refunded only for the last 3 years. For pensioners, a refund for the previous 4 years is possible. It turns out that in 2021, citizens will be refunded the overpaid funds for 2021, 2019, 2021 (2021 is also available for pensioners).

After submitting documentation to the Federal Tax Service, a desk audit is mandatory. The inspector checks the papers within three months. After the check, the citizen will receive a notification of a positive or negative decision on return. If the answer is satisfactory, the funds will be transferred to the current account specified in the application within 1 month after a positive decision is made.

Filling out a return application

Starting with the 2021 declaration, it is possible to apply for a personal income tax refund in two ways:

• directly as part of 3-NDFL, it is given in the Appendix to Section. 1 declaration;

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• separately from the declaration, in this case the form from Appendix 8 to the order of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated February 14, 2017 No. ММВ-7-8 / [email protected] , which, starting from October 23, 2021, is valid as amended by the Federal Tax Service order dated August 17, 2021 No. ED- 7-8/ [email protected] You can download it for free by clicking on the picture:

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Whether an individual entrepreneur can take advantage of a tax deduction when purchasing an apartment and apply for a personal income tax refund, read the material “Tax deduction when purchasing an apartment for individual entrepreneurs (nuances).”