06 February 2014, 00:00

The tax is not for the poor

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov instructed to work on the issue of a sharp increase in property tax deductions. Almost all one-room apartments, as well as small two-room apartments, will be freed from it Sergei Titov Philip Sterkin Small two-room apartments are not threatened by the new tax / D. Abramov / Vedomosti

Yesterday, at a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, the property tax for citizens was discussed. Now it is charged on the inventory value, but the government wants to switch to the cadastral value, which is closer to the market value (see inset).

President Vladimir Putin called for a tax on the cadastral value of real estate starting in 2014 back in 2012. Municipalities are interested in introducing the tax. Now their income from citizens’ real estate is extremely small (in 2012 they received 15.8 billion rubles), moreover, the database has not been updated since 2012 and new buildings are not taxed.

The introduction of the tax was prevented by the imperfection of the State Real Estate Cadastre (GKN), federal officials previously said. The discussion on tax benefits has also dragged on, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said in an interview with Vedomosti.

Yesterday Shuvalov instructed to work on the issue of increasing deductions for apartments and houses to 50 and 100 square meters. m accordingly, his representative said. In the latest version of the project prepared by the Ministry of Finance, there were 20 and 50 square meters. m respectively.

Shuvalov instructed the relevant departments to determine the permissible load level for different categories of citizens, his representative continues: for those who live in inexpensive housing, the situation should not worsen. Tax benefits will take the form of social deductions, which will be established at the federal level, as well as additional subsidies from regions and municipalities, he said: “If now the property of beneficiaries is not taxed (for example, veterans, pensioners, Chernobyl victims.” - Vedomosti ), then even after the introduction of the tax this should not change.” To avoid abuse, it is proposed to establish a rule according to which benefits can only be obtained for one object, he continues.

With such deductions, small country houses and about half of Moscow’s housing stock can be removed from taxation, says Oleg Repchenko, head of the analytical portal irn.ru: all one-room apartments (about 30% of the stock), as well as two-room apartments in old houses. In the regions - even more, he believes, where the share of elite buildings is lower. Apparently, the government wants to exclude economy-class housing from the tax, but impose it on the middle class and wealthier people, says Repchenko. In Russia, the property tax will become a luxury tax, he summarizes.

Problems with the State Control Committee are still relevant, says a federal official. Data from the State Property Committee and the Unified State Register of Copyright Holders, created in 1998, are synchronized by more than 90%, said a representative of Rosreestr, but there is a problem with objects that were registered by the BTI before 1998. The copyright holders of some of these objects are unknown, he admits, but there are fewer and fewer of them . Transactions are made, the owner changes and new rights are registered, which are already reflected in the State Property Committee, explains a representative of Rosreestr.

There are also complaints about the data in the notifications: tax authorities use information that comes from Rosreestr and the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, but it is not always correct, said the head of the Federal Tax Service, Mikhail Mishustin, at the Gaidar Forum in January (quotes from the Federal Tax Service website). “We cannot force people to register real estate,” complains an employee of Rosreestr; the issue must be resolved at the legislative level.

Tax officials are already trying to solve the problem through amendments to the Tax Code. It is planned to change the mechanism for paying property taxes, Mishustin said: it is necessary to oblige citizens to independently inform the tax authority about their property. Currently, people must pay these taxes only after receiving a tax notice.

The draft amendments to the Tax Code (available from Vedomosti) explain how the mechanism will work. If by September 1 the taxpayer does not receive a notification regarding any of his property, then by December 31 he must independently notify the inspectorate that he is its owner, attaching title documents. It is assumed that the mechanism will work like this, says the head of the Federal Tax Service, Mikhail Sergeev: after receiving data from the taxpayer, the Federal Tax Service requests from the registration authorities - Rosreestr or the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate - the information necessary for calculating the tax and sends a notification to the owner. It calculates the tax for the three previous years.

An incentive to declare “unknown” property will be a “tax amnesty”: penalties for previous periods will not be charged. If the tax authorities, together with the registration authorities, themselves find unregistered objects and their copyright holder, then the tax will be calculated in full, including penalties, says Sergeev. Penalties of 1/300th of the refinancing rate for each day of delay could amount to up to a third of the annual tax amount over three years, he warns: “This will give taxpayers pause.” Taxes will be paid on objects that were not previously registered, and municipal revenues will increase, Sergeev notes.

There is also a more loyal version of the amnesty, says one of the participants in the discussion: the Ministry of Finance proposes to exempt the person who declared the property not only from penalties, but also from all taxes for previous periods. The main approaches continue to be discussed, says Sergeev.