How to get landlords to pay taxes.
Russians who rent out apartments and do not pay taxes will be taken out of the shadows - such plans for this year were announced by the Ministry of Construction. For this, the department will create a special platform in conjunction with the tax service and the GIS Housing and Communal Services.
As Deputy Minister of Construction Nikita Stasishin explained, in the new system it will be easier for apartment owners to draw up a lease agreement and transfer data to the Federal Tax Service. This will bring up to 200 billion rubles in taxes a year to the budget, and guarantees the security of transactions to the owners, the Ministry of Construction is sure. What do property owners and analysts themselves think? Vladislav Viktorov talked to them.
According to the Ministry of Construction, the “whitewashing” of the real estate rental market is needed not so much for the sake of collecting taxes as for safety.
Now over 5 million apartments are rented across the country, and most owners really try to conclude agreements with tenants, but they are not reported to the tax authorities. For such people, the department wants to create a special platform.
However, the ministry has not yet decided exactly how it will look. But there will definitely be an opportunity to conclude a lease agreement, register tenants at the place of residence, insure housing and transfer data to the tax office.
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If in practice everything is really that simple, then, for example, a Muscovite Ulyana is ready to use this service, although now she rents an apartment even without a contract. “Now all this, in my opinion, is quite difficult - to draw up documents, then pay taxes. The second point - of course, I don’t want to lose money, let it better stay in my pocket. With the tenants, everything is simple for me - they are my acquaintances, maybe that's why I don't think about any contracts, ”she says.
However, this approach is fraught with certain risks - in the event of any conflict situation, there will be nothing to show tenants. Therefore, many people still prefer to conclude an agreement for a period of 11 months, mistakenly believing that this frees them from the obligation to pay taxes.
If all these landlords are forced to "whitewash", then annually the budget will receive about 200 billion rubles in taxes, they say in the Ministry of Construction. But the percentage of those who use gray schemes is huge, says Irina Bogatyreva, editor-in-chief of the Internet magazine "World of Apartments". But she believes that no benefits will make citizens pay taxes overnight: “According to our data, about 80-90% of this market is in the shadows.
The reason is that they do not want to pay taxes, they do not want the state to somehow monitor this area.
It is also difficult to say how convenient the new platform will be, but not everyone will want to pay taxes. All the same, this process will not be fast. "
But now for those who rent out apartments, tax breaks are in effect: before, you had to pay 13% of income, but now only 4% (6% - if you rent an apartment to a legal entity) - it is enough to register as self-employed. But experience shows that even this does not motivate citizens to leave the gray zone, says Grigory Poltorak, head of BEST-Nedvizhimost and vice-president of the Guild of Realtors. It turns out that it is necessary to motivate not only with a carrot, but also with a whip, he sums up: “Now the system has been simplified to the point of disgrace.
Only 4% - you have to have a conscience and pay them. But they don't get paid.
You also need something forcing. It is enough to make sure that announcements of renting an apartment cannot be submitted without presenting documents confirming the ownership. And if you have submitted an ad, then it is easy to check.
It is not known whether the largest Russian portals for finding housing are ready to help the authorities find tax evaders - they could not promptly provide a comment to Kommersant FM. However, the interviewed market participants are sure that the authorities can easily do without them. If they do, then, as practice shows, everyone will have to pay.