Many people within one year make several real estate transactions at once. Therefore, during one tax period, an apartment can be sold and bought. In this case, offsetting is possible when selling and buying an apartment. This is allowed only if you have to pay a tax on the sale of housing, as it belonged to the seller for less than three years. It is important that the property deduction is not fully used. Under such conditions, a citizen can avoid the need to pay tax on the sale of the object.
When is tax not required?
It is not always necessary to pay tax after the sale of housing, since under certain conditions it is reduced or even citizens are exempted from paying it. You do not have to pay tax under the following conditions:
- the dwelling bought by the citizen belongs to him for more than five years;
- apartment for sale at a price not exceeding 1 million rubles .;
- there is no income from the sale, therefore, if a citizen has two contracts, then only with a positive difference between the two prices a tax of 13% is paid;
- if the apartment was received on the basis of a gratuitous transaction, for example, was inherited or donated, then it is enough to own it only for 3 years.
For free transactions include the privatization of real estate, the transfer of the property by inheritance or as a gift.
Tax Payment Rules
If a person sells housing that has belonged to him for less than three years, then he will have to pay a tax of 13% of the value of this object from the amount received. An exemption can be obtained not only on the condition that the dwelling is the property of a citizen for the required period of time. In addition, offsets can be applied when selling and buying an apartment for one year.
The use of such netting has many advantages. This includes the fact that you can sell an object without difficulty without fearing that you will have to pay 13% of income to the state budget from the amount received.
Conditions for the implementation of the process
The tax offset in the sale and purchase of an apartment is allowed only subject to certain conditions. These include:
- housing is sold and bought within one calendar year;
- it is allowed that a new apartment be bought before the sale of the old object, but it is important that the citizen does not have time to exercise his right to deduction;
- the buyer did not apply the refund until 2014, and also did not exhaust the existing limit of 2 million rubles.
The use of such netting in the sale and purchase of an apartment is permitted even if the citizen is not officially working, and therefore the employer does not transfer personal income tax to the budget for it. For example, pensioners, sole proprietors applying simplified regimes, as well as simply officially unemployed citizens, are included here.
When is it impossible to use this scheme?
Taxes on the sale of an apartment are considered significant in size, so many people want to free themselves from paying them. Mutual settlement is considered an ideal solution, but at the same time there are some situations where it will not work. This includes the following conditions:
- housing is purchased from close relatives;
- the apartment is bought on the basis of the DDU, since the act of transfer of the object is issued to the buyer only after the building is put into operation.
The deed of transfer is certainly included in the package of documents required to receive the deduction, therefore, if this documentation is not available, then it will not work to offset.
Rules for calculating and paying tax
The seller must pay the tax on the sale of the apartment, if there are no different possibilities for its reduction or exemption from its payment. If a person cannot confirm his spending on the purchase of real estate, and has also been the owner of this property for less than three years, then the following sequence of actions is taken into account for calculating the tax:
- for calculation, the value specified in the contract is taken, but if it is less than the cadastral price, then the cadastral indicator is used in the calculation process;
- initially, 1 million rubles is deducted from the tax base, represented by a tax deduction;
- 13% is calculated from the remaining amount;
- the amount received is payable to the budget.
If the result of the calculations is zero or a negative value, the citizen is exempted from paying the fee.
For example, a citizen inherited housing, so he cannot confirm his expenses for its purchase. The cadastral value of this property is 2.5 million rubles. If a person decides to sell this object, then he is obliged to pay 13% of 1.5 million rubles. But if in the same year he acquires another property, then you can use the property deduction, which ensures the registration of income tax return when buying an apartment. Under such conditions, you do not have to pay tax.
Rules for applying for benefits
If, after the sale of an apartment, a citizen decides to buy another object, he will be able to receive a deduction in two ways:
- receiving a tax deduction in a standard way, which allows the buyer to receive a maximum of 260 thousand rubles .;
- the use of mutual settlements, which makes it possible to free oneself from the need to pay tax on sold housing.
For example, the apartment was sold for 1.5 million rubles. New housing is bought for 3 million rubles. You can get the maximum deduction equal to 260 thousand rubles. With a sold object, taking into account a deduction of 1 million rubles. Personal income tax is equal to 65 thousand rubles. When using mutual settlements, it is not required to pay tax, and also a citizen can additionally receive from the Federal Tax Service 260 - 65 = 195 thousand rubles.
Money in the form of a deduction can be made out at the tax office or when contacting the employer.
Rules for filing a declaration
If offsetting is used when selling and buying an apartment, it is important to correctly execute the necessary documentation. It is transferred to the department of the Federal Tax Service at the place of residence of the citizen. Especially much attention is paid to the declaration when selling and buying an apartment at the same time. The rules for its preparation include:
- you need to fill in two sections, one of which is intended to formalize the deduction, and the other contains information about all income from which 13% is paid;
- separately, you can enter information about the possibility of obtaining a social deduction;
- it is not required to confirm the reduction of the tax base by 1 million rubles with the help of any documents .;
- other papers must be attached to the declaration as evidence of the sale and purchase of two real estate properties.
You can find out exactly what documents are required directly from the employees of the Federal Tax Service. It is even proposed to offset the sale and purchase of an apartment to pensioners, if they have not previously used the full benefit. They are not officially working citizens, so the employer is not paid for them. They will be able to use only mutual settlements, but they will not be able to receive the rest of the deduction.
What are the differences with the employees of the Federal Tax Service?
Every person who plans to sell and buy a house within one year must figure out what netting is. With it, you can get rid of the need to pay a significant amount of funds in the form of personal income tax. But often, citizens have to deal with various disputes with employees of the Federal Tax Service. The main problems include:
- sometimes tax service specialists refuse to set off without justifiable reasons;
- employees of the Federal Tax Service find non-existent errors in the declaration of 3-personal income tax;
- for various reasons, experts are not allowed to use two deductions at the same time.
Since by their actions the inspectors violate the requirements of the law, any citizen can go to court to challenge their decision. According to a court decision, personal income tax will be correctly calculated while selling and buying an apartment.
What are the risks?
When using mutual settlement, you may encounter some risks. These include:
- the cost of housing in a new building may increase in the process of selling old real estate, so the available savings may not be enough to buy a home, which will lead to the need to pay a fee, since there will be no way to use mutual settlements;
- if there is a need to buy housing in a new building, you will have to buy objects that have already been commissioned, because if there is a DDU, you won’t be able to arrange a deduction;
- since a person is in a hurry to make two transactions within one year, this often leads to the fact that a low-quality and good apartment is chosen, and often developers specifically offer such buyers premises for which low demand is established.
Therefore, if you plan to refund income tax when buying an apartment immediately after the sale of old housing, it is recommended to take into account the many risks that arise during this process.
Conclusion
If a person within one year sells and buys a house, then he can arrange settlement. With it, a citizen is freed from the need to pay personal income tax on income received from the sale of real estate. A process can only be performed if certain conditions are met.
The use of mutual settlement is accompanied by some risks, which every taxpayer should remember. Even unemployed citizens or pensioners can take advantage of such a scheme.
