The government intends to charge a percentage of the value of real estate transactions

The Ministry of Finance proposes to change the mechanism for calculating the state duty paid by individuals and companies when carrying out transactions with real estate (including land) and registering rights to it. This is stated in the bill on tax changes submitted by the department to the government. I have a copy of the document RBCits authenticity was confirmed by a source familiar with the contents of the amendments.

What changes are expected to be made?

It follows from the bill that the department proposes to switch to collecting state fees for registering ownership of real estate and subsequent entering information into the Unified State Register of Real Estate as a percentage of the transaction price. Now this amount is fixed in the Tax Code: individuals who purchase housing must pay 2 thousand rubles, and legal entities — 22 thousand rubles. The agency proposes to maintain this payment amount if the cadastral value of the asset does not exceed 20 million rubles.

The changes will affect objects valued at more than 20 million rubles. When making transactions with them, individuals will have to pay 0.1% of the transaction price, but not less than 0.1% of the cadastral value of the asset. In this case, the maximum payment amount will be 500 thousand rubles, it follows from the document. For organizations, the fee will be 0.3% of the transaction amount, but also not less than 0.3% of the cadastral value of the property. It, in turn, cannot exceed 1 million rubles, it follows from the document.

The explanatory note to the bill notes that the transition from a fixed amount to a percentage of the transaction price when paying state duty for registering ownership rights to real estate will additionally bring the budget at least 16 billion rubles. in 2025. Until 2030, revenues may total about 106 billion rubles.

How do experts assess the bill?

Now almost all initiatives are aimed at replenishing the budget and changing the mechanism for calculating state duties when making real estate transactions is no exception, says Stanislav Sagiryan, General Director of RKS Development Group of Companies. The proposed changes are aimed at bringing the size of this payment in line with the market value of real estate, which should ensure a more equitable distribution of the tax burden, notes Optima Development commercial director Dmitry Golev. However, according to him, the expected fiscal burden on buyers of real estate worth more than 20 million rubles. looks excessive, since in modern conditions such transactions certainly do not indicate excess income. It would be more logical to levy such a significant duty exclusively on elite transactions, for example, those worth 100 million rubles or more, he argues. This will most likely have a negative impact on the market, since expenses will be included in the cost per square meter, Sagiryan believes.

Until now, a fixed and rather modest duty was not an important stage of the deal, but now it may become one, since it will increase at least tenfold, says Ruslan Syrtsov, managing director of Metrium. According to him, this is unlikely to cause a strong blow to demand, but it will complicate transactions and force their participants to incur additional expenses that could be spent, for example, on repairs and the purchase of furniture.

The demand for the purchase of real estate is unlikely to decrease, other experts and market participants interviewed by RBC believe. The main driver continues to be the cost of housing and the monthly mortgage payment, notes the CEO of Ricci | Residential real estate» Ekaterina Lomteva. A radical increase in the state duty will not be able to affect the market, says commercial director of the Osnova Group of Companies Igor Sibrenkov. According to him, the likelihood of such innovations has been discussed for a long time and, most likely, this will not have an impact on the volume of transactions and plans of home buyers. Changes in the mechanism for collecting state duties will not affect price dynamics or pricing, says Maxim Luchnikov, commercial director of BMS Development Group.

source: RBC