Owners of apartments, houses, dachas and other square meters annually deal with the tax authorities - they pay tax on real estate of individuals. But for many owners it is still unclear where the figures presented by the state come from: how this tax is calculated, what rates apply and why some must pay while others are exempt from this obligation. In this material we answer the most important questions about property taxes.
What is real estate tax and who should pay
Real estate tax is a fee established by the state for owning a real estate property. Such property includes an apartment, a dorm room, a summer house, a residential building and outbuildings nearby, an unfinished building, a garage and even a parking space. The more property, the more expenses on taxes.
- The property tax is paid by its legal owner. Even if you don’t have Russian citizenship, but you have a house on the territory of the country, you have to pay.
- If you do not own the entire object, but only a share, then only you need to pay for it. Each shareholder is responsible for himself in this matter.
To calculate property taxes, it is not necessary to contact the tax office. Let’s figure out what formula and with what reservations you can find out it yourself
What do you have to pay for?
Real estate is not just a house or apartment. The tax will have to be paid for the garage, dorm room and parking space purchased as property. Commercial real estate is also subject to tax, as are country houses, outbuildings, warehouses, and unfinished objects. Even sea vessels and space objects are classified as real estate, so if you are the proud owner of the latter, you will have to periodically visit the tax office. The calculation will be made individually for each property, regardless of how many apartments, yachts and spaceships you have.
What does the cost depend on and how does it change?
The tax service takes into account the cadastral value - the amount calculated by the cadastral chamber. It changes every three years in all cities except Moscow, Sevastopol and St. Petersburg. In the last three settlements, the price is revised every two years due to dynamic changes in the real estate market. The amount varies depending on the infrastructure of the area, the wear and tear of the house, and the availability of similar offers for sale. If the value calculated by the cadastral chamber does not suit you, you can go to court for recalculation. To use the real estate tax formula, you need to find out the cadastral and inventory value of the property, as well as the rate and benefits you are entitled to.
How to find out the cadastral value
To obtain information about the price of property, you can contact the cadastral chamber of your city and apply for a certificate of the cadastral value of the property. Be sure to take your passport with you. The certificate will be ready within five working days, and it is free. If you do not need the original document confirming the cost of the apartment, then you can check it without leaving your home - on the Rosreestr website. In the “electronic services” section, go to the “reference information on real estate” tab or find your house on the public cadastral map by coordinates and address.
How to find out inventory value
An inventory assessment is usually requested when they want to buy or sell an apartment, or when they participate in the processes of privatization, inheritance or exchange. This amount is calculated by specialists at the Bureau of Technical Inventory. They determine the replacement cost - the price of the building at the moment, as if it were built just now, taking into account the costs of commissioning. The greatest importance for calculating the inventory value of real estate will be: the area of housing, the type of foundation, the number of load-bearing walls, windows, doors, as well as elevators and floors in the house. In addition, they take into account the prices of equipment and materials, wages of workers, warehouse and transportation costs and the maintenance of utility networks. The percentage of wear and tear and changes in the cost of materials and services are subtracted from the replacement cost.
How to determine tax deduction
When paying tax at cadastral value, a tax deduction is provided for owners. It is important that you can use this benefit only for one piece of real estate from different categories (house, room, apartment, etc.). Therefore, if you own two or more apartments (houses), make calculations for each property to determine which one is more profitable to receive a deduction for. If you don’t choose on your own and not notify the tax service, then the specialists themselves will determine for which apartment to provide the maximum benefit, and this will not always be a calculation in your favor.
Some owners are exempt from taxes by law. The full list of benefits can be found on the website of the Federal Tax Service, which provides background information on benefits and rates for property taxes. They should not be paid by Heroes of the USSR, pensioners, disabled people of groups I and II, spouses of civil servants, soldiers and officers who died at work, military families who have lost their breadwinner. Only one property from each category of real estate is also exempt from paying tax, if you have several of them. This measure was taken to ensure that solvent owners do not pursue profits by transferring apartments, for example, to their elderly parents.
How to choose a rate Our country uses a three-level property tax rate. For residential buildings, parking spaces, garages, unfinished buildings and outbuildings, it is equal to 0.1% - this is the first level. For buildings that do not belong to these categories and are defined as “other,” the rate is 0.5%, and for expensive real estate, which the cadastral service has valued at over 300 million rubles, the rate is 2%. By the way, the rate varies at the discretion of municipalities; it can be reduced or increased to 0.3% if we are talking about the first level of real estate.
How to calculate tax Ivan Tatarinov, commercial director of the development company Glincom:
— The tax formula is determined as the product of the cadastral value of the property, reduced by the tax deduction, and the interest rate, which depends on the type of property. If we are talking about apartments, then it varies from 0.1% to 0.3%, if the apartment is more expensive than 300 million rubles, then the rate is 2%. The reducing factor is no longer applied; it was introduced only during the transition period.
If you are not satisfied with the cadastral value, going to court is quite justified. This type of real estate assessment is carried out on a mass scale and does not take into account many of the nuances and characteristics of individual objects. Therefore, if the owner has reason to believe that the cadastral value of his property has been inflated, he can go to court. If we talk about the objects of the Glincom company (retail, office, apartment complexes in Moscow), we went to court three times with a demand to reduce their cadastral value and in all cases we managed to achieve a reduction of more than 25%.
If major repairs have been carried out at the entrance of the house, this most likely will not affect the cost. I'll try to explain. The tax increases only due to the revision of the cadastral value, which in Moscow occurs every two years. At the same time, the city determines it on a mass basis, using general data about the building in which the apartment is located (type of building, materials from which the walls are made, number of floors, location). Accordingly, individual parameters of apartments are not taken into account. However, the assessment also uses information about ongoing transactions. And if we assume that the renovation contributed to an increase in the cost of apartments upon sale, then this data can be used in the assessment. But this is extremely unlikely.
How to calculate property tax in Russia yourself
To calculate we need several components:
- inventory and cadastral value of the object;
- reduction factor;
- bid;
- tax deductions;
- holding period ratio.
The rules for determining property taxes from individuals are changing. In 2021, the country finally switched to a calculation where the cadastral value of the property is taken as the tax base.
Why do you need to switch to a new calculation?
Until 2014, the inventory value established by the BTI was taken as a basis. It took into account only the degree of wear and tear of the building and the cost, so it was considered obsolete. The cadastral value is determined by Rosreestr, and it is closer to the market price. This means that taxes will gradually increase. To find out what tax you will have to pay , you need to know both the inventory and cadastral value of your property.
A certificate of inventory price can be obtained from the BTI. The cadastral value is determined in several ways. You can do this on the website of Rosreestr or the Federal Tax Service, for this you should open a personal account there. Easier and faster - on the portal EGRN.Reestr .
You just need to enter the cadastral number of the object or its full address on the main page of the resource and immediately receive an urgent extract. It states the cost of the object.
Payment procedure
The presence of buildings on the site is secondary, since the owner can buy land for development or receive a site with a house on it.
If you purchased land and built a house on it, then you need to pay tax on it in the next reporting period. For example, if you build a house in the fall of 2021, you pay from the beginning of 2021. At the same time, the house is considered built only after it has been put into operation and the relevant documents have been received.
When buying a house on a plot, the tax amount for the current year is divided between the seller and the buyer. As a rule, payment must be made before November of the current year.
If you are worried about payment deadlines, remember that the tax authorities send out notices about this. The amount of tax you pay in a particular case depends on the inventory value of the property. This figure is indicated in the technical inventory documents of the house. The tax office receives information about the object automatically from departmental organizations.
Reduction factor
Russia has been switching to a new calculation scheme since 2015. To prevent it from hitting the Russians’ pockets too hard, a reduction factor is applied. It is different, depending on the year in which the region began to switch to new tax rules.
- In the first year, a coefficient of 0.2% is used;
- In the second year – 0.4%;
- In the third year – 0.6%.
Then the tax will be calculated based on the full cadastral value, but with the condition that the increase will not be more than 10% per year.
Each property owner needs to find out what reduction factor is currently set in his region. But it is worth considering that it is not applied if the tax on the cadastral value is less than the amount on the property according to the inventory.
Benefits in the form of tax deductions
Depending on the nature of the transactions, additional deductions may be provided for the purchase and sale of land and houses. Detailed information on these deductions can be obtained individually from tax office employees.
All calculation amounts are made on the basis of the cadastral value, and it depends on market conditions. Therefore, property owners should be prepared for rising rates.
If you bought property worth no more than 2 million rubles, you have the right to receive compensation from the state. Benefits are also provided provided that you purchased similar property with funds received from the purchase and sale transaction. For example, we bought a neighboring house or plot for dacha management.
Tax rate
The property tax rate for individuals is a percentage of the tax base, that is, of the inventory or cadastral value . The law established basic rates; their size depends on the price of the object and the type. For a garage, house or apartment it is 0.1%. For everything else 0.5%. For expensive properties (above 300 million rubles) the rate is 2%. But at the same time, each region sets its own rates, they vary from 0 to 0.3%. You can check them on the Federal Tax Service portal.
Taxation of land plots
By purchasing a country house, the buyer receives at his disposal a plot of land (adjacent territory). The tax services already have data on it; it has a cadastral number and certain boundaries.
At the same time, the new owner is required to pay land tax in the following cases:
- if the site is privatized;
- received on the basis of perpetual use rights;
- is in lifelong possession.
Land tax must be paid annually. The amount is calculated individually, depending on the cadastral value of the site. The Tax Code sets the maximum permissible rates. You can find restrictions in Art. 394.
If you buy a house on land that does not fall under the categories of agricultural land, private household plots, peasant farms, then the rate for annual payment will be a maximum of 0.3% of the cadastral value of the plot. You can find it out on the website: pkk5.rosreestr.ru.
Tax deductions
To ensure that taxes are not prohibitive, special deductions have been introduced - part of the square meters is removed from the total area of the object. The tax becomes lower.
There are also rules here:
- You need to subtract 50 sq.m. from the square footage of the house.
- Of the apartment area – 20 sq.m.
- Of the room area - 10 sq. m.
It turns out that the owner of an apartment with an area of 50 sq.m. will be charged tax only for 30 sq.m. And for a room measuring 10 square meters you won’t have to pay at all.
Holding Period Ratio
This is the number of months for which the property was owned, divided by 12. A month is considered complete if you received ownership of it before the 15th day inclusive. If after, then this month is not taken into account.
For example, on April 16 you purchased a home, and on October 18 you sold it. In this case, April is not taken into account, but October is considered a full month. As a result, it turns out that you owned the object for 7 months.
7/12 = 0.58 - this is the holding period coefficient.
Tax calculation using an example
Using an example, let's look at how much property tax is.
Let's take an apartment with an area of 50 sq.m. It is located in Tyumen. Its cadastral value is 1.2 million rubles, and its inventory value is 500 thousand rubles. The holding period is a full year. We need to know what the tax rate will be for 2021.
- Let's calculate the amount of tax based on the cadastral value. To do this, take the formula: Tax = Cadastral value X Tax rate X Ownership period coefficient. To find out the cadastral value, you need to apply a deduction. First, we calculate the cost of one square meter: 1.2 million rubles. /50 sq.m=24,000 rub. We remove the deduction: 50 sq.m. – 20 sq.m. = 30 sq.m. We multiply the cost of square meters by the remaining area: 24,000 rubles. X 30 sq.m = 720 thousand rubles.
In Tyumen, the rate on apartments is 0.1%. The holding period is 1.720 thousand rubles. X 0.1 X 1 = 720 rub. 720 rub. – this is the full amount of property tax at the cadastral value. But they haven’t paid it in full yet, because a reduction factor is applied.
- Let's calculate the inventory value. It is determined by the formula: Tax = Inventory value X Deflator coefficient X Tax rate X Holding period coefficient. No deduction is used here. The deflator coefficient in Tyumen in 2015 (the last year of using inventory value for tax calculation) was 1.147, and the tax rate for apartments was 0.1%. The deflator coefficient can be viewed on the Federal Tax Service resource.
500 thousand rubles X 1.147 X 0.1% X 1 = 573 rub. As you can see, the tax turned out to be lower than when calculated using the cadastral value.
- We will calculate the tax based on the cadastral value for 2021. In this case, a reduction factor is applied. In Tyumen, the cadastral value is used as the tax base for the third year, so the coefficient is 0.6. The tax is calculated using the formula: (Tax on the cadastre – Tax on the inventory value) X Reduction factor + Tax on the inventory value = Tax amount.
(720 rub. - 573 rub.) X 0.6 + 573 rub. = 661 rub. If instead of the whole apartment you have a share in it, you need to divide the amount by the size of the share. In addition, you may be one of the beneficiaries. In this case, the tax will be reduced in accordance with the size of the benefit. For example, you have the right to a “discount” of 50%, then instead of 661 rub. pay 330.5 rub. tax
What are the benefits?
At the moment, the following preferential conditions for land taxation are provided for plots with houses:
- Religious, public organizations, communities of disabled people (with a membership of more than 80% of people with disabilities) and charitable associations are exempt from payment;
- Territories inhabited by small peoples (Far East, Siberia) are being liberated. These are lands for cultural development, management and preservation of the way of life of indigenous people;
- Preferential taxation (reduction of the tax base by 10 thousand rubles) is provided for categories of veterans and disabled people of the Great Patriotic War and military operations, people with disabilities since childhood, holders of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, full holders of the Order of Glory and Heroes of the Russian Federation, as well as disabled people of groups I, II, III.
Using an example, we can consider how restrictions and benefits work: if the cadastral value is equal to 1.5 million rubles. for a plot in the Moscow region, then taking into account the limitation of 0.3% and benefits for the disabled, the tax will be:
(1,500,000 – 10,000) x 0.3% = 1,470 rubles
The owner of the plot is required to pay this amount for the year.
When and how to get the benefit
In order for the state to know that you are entitled to a tax benefit, you need to notify the tax service about this - send an application. Deadlines don't matter. If you manage to do this before April 1, then tax payments will come taking into account the benefits. If you write an application later, they will recalculate it later.
Owners of several properties need to consider the following points:
- The benefit applies to different types of objects. For example, you have a house, an apartment and a garage. All these objects will be subject to benefits. There is no need to send documents for them, the details will suffice.
- The benefit is given only for one object out of several, if they are of the same type. For example, you have three apartments - you will need to choose which one will be “preferential”. If you don’t choose, the tax office will do it for you. You must submit your choice by December 31st.
Amount of taxes. Where to look for answers?
The norms of tax legislation are generally contained in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. This is a set of rules, concepts and relationships that provide answers to general questions.
Rates, benefits and requirements for paying taxes for a specific site are contained in the regulations of local authorities. Consequently, you can find specifics on taxation issues for a particular area in them.
It is noteworthy that the documents have short-term validity and can be canceled by new acts, so when paying a fee it is worth taking into account the latest editions of the documents. If changes are made to the rules and regulations, the authorities notify the owners.
When is property tax assessed?
Real estate tax is charged from the moment a citizen takes ownership of square meters. I sold them and ceased to be registered as a taxpayer. For heirs who inherited an object from a deceased person, the rules are different: they must pay taxes from the date of death of the testator, and not from the moment the property is registered.
If you bought an apartment after July 15, 2021, then the tax will be calculated only for 5 months. That is, from August to December. If the apartment was purchased at the beginning of July, the amount will be credited over 6 months.
How to find out if tax has been charged
According to the rules for taxing real estate for individuals, the deadline for paying taxes is December 1 of each year. Then they begin to fine debtors who did not manage to pay before this date. Every day of delay - plus additional penalties.
If you don’t pay taxes for a long time, you will have to deal with the court, which will oblige you to pay anyway. And then, in addition to the penalty, an enforcement fee and legal expenses will be added. Money will be withdrawn from the card by default, and if it does not have the required amount, it will be blocked until the account is replenished. A debt of 30 thousand rubles or more may result in you not being allowed to go abroad.
The tax is calculated for the previous year, and in the fall of the current year each property owner receives a receipt or notification of the amount. Those who have a personal account on the Federal Tax Service portal automatically receive notifications there. Citizens without a personal account are sent receipts by mail. You can also find out information about charges by visiting the tax office or MFC in person.
Taxes can be paid through:
- personal account of the Federal Tax Service
- Internet bank
- bank or terminal by receipt
Text: Olesya Moskevich
