The enforcement mechanism of the tax on empty houses is weak – Tejaratnews
According to Tejarat News, the tax law on vacant houses has been approved with the aim of reducing rent prices, increasing housing supply and fighting housing hoarding. This law was approved in December 2019, but due to the weakness of the accurate identification mechanism and the lack of information, its implementation did not take a serious form.
According to Article 54 of the Direct Taxes Law, empty house tax is imposed on houses that remain empty for more than 120 days during the year. On July 22, 2019, this project was approved with 11 comments and was placed on the agenda of the government. Based on this, all houses are not subject to tax, except for the house that includes legal notes. Today, one of the ways to increase investment and generate income is to buy property and rent it. In such a situation, the owners of several properties in the country, by keeping their houses empty, affect the price of the property and cause the loss of many people. Based on this, the government has established a law to close the hands of profiteers and help all sections of the society. All people who live in Iran or abroad, as natural and legal persons, are obliged to rent their properties.
The reason for the lack of housing in our country is not because of the lack of housing, but because of the existence of empty houses. Some capitalists refuse to sell or rent their properties at certain times in order to increase the price and then achieve large profits. The empty house penalty was created to combat this problem. The tax plan on vacant houses was approved by the Parliament in July 2019 and then sent to the Guardian Council. Although this plan was not approved in the first place, but after the objections of the Guardian Council regarding the empty house tax were resolved by the Parliament, this plan was implemented.
With the beginning of the 13th government, government agencies, including tax affairs and the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, have put the implementation of this law on their agenda and are working together in the form of collecting information on these houses and updating them in an effort to identify empty houses. and apply the desired tax to these houses.
Identification of 330,000 new empty houses by June
According to the budget bill 1402, the government plans to collect 2 thousand billion tomans in taxes from the owners of empty houses this year; In the meantime, any information that reaches the tax system will be collected, and the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has until July 1402 to check the final status of empty houses.
How to identify empty houses for tax payment
All owners and owners of houses must register the information of their properties and houses in the housing and real estate system of the country. This system belongs to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for registration of taxes on vacant houses and contains complete information about the zip code and occupancy status of each house by the owner or tenant. According to the Guardian Council’s Vacant House Tax Law, all government institutions and banks are required to provide services to people only by receiving their address and zip code. In this way, the process of identifying people’s residence is done quickly and accurately.
In addition, the government sends an SMS containing a request to clarify the status of residential units to the people. After receiving the SMS, people have 2 months to register the status of their house or property in the housing and real estate system of the country. Otherwise, the property in question will be identified as an empty house and will be subject to the tax plan. Owners of empty houses must fill out the tax return at the appropriate time and submit it to the country’s tax authority.
How to calculate vacant houses for tax
Many people assume that the tax on vacant homes depends on factors such as the age of the home or its wear and tear. In case, the tax on empty houses in Kalgani is exactly the same as the tax rules for newly built empty houses and there is no difference from it. Therefore, if you have inherited an old house from someone, you must pay the tax on the empty house after a certain period of time, in addition to paying the inheritance tax.
The tax on vacant houses is calculated based on various factors such as the time the property has been vacant, the number of vacant houses and the rental value of the property. The tax rate on empty houses in Tehran and other cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants for owners of 1 to 5 houses are:
First year: 6 times the rental value of the property – Second year: 12 times the rental value of the property – Third year: 18 times the rental value of the property
The tax rate for those who have more than 5 empty houses is as follows:
The first year: 12 times the rental value of the properties – the second year: 24 times the rental value of the properties – the third year: 36 times the rental value of the properties
If there is no objection, the owner of the house can proceed to pay it one month after sending the tax assessment form. In case of delay in tax payment, a penalty of 2.5% per month will be charged to the individual.
Tax-exempt vacant houses
Cases that are exempted from the tax on empty houses, provided that they are registered in the real estate and housing system – the main residence of the household -, in addition to the main residence, each household can have one of its owned units in a city other than the city of the main residence. register it as a secondary residence, in this case the said unit will not be subject to tax on empty houses.
If the main residence of the household is owned by one of the members of the household, the said household can register a maximum of one more unit of the units under its possession in the same city as the main residence as a secondary residence, in this case the said unit is subject to house tax. It is not empty.
Students, cadets, students, workers and those suffering from certain diseases, if they reside in a city other than the main and secondary residence of the household, only by presenting positive documents, including insurance premium payment certificate for workers and employment certificate, the possibility of registering another residential unit for They are exempt from tax on empty houses.
Residential units where the owners of trades, businesses, including tourism and pilgrimage, active institutions or companies that have a license from the relevant authority and are not prohibited from operating in residential units, provided that the information is registered in the real estate and housing system of the country and upon notification to the tax affairs organization The country and the social security organization are exempt from the tax on empty houses.
Residential units located in cities with a population of less than 100,000 people and villages in the country are not subject to the tax on empty houses, provided they are registered in the National Real Estate and Housing System.
Endowment residential units, which cannot be rented according to the endowment letter, based on inquiries from the endowment and charity organization, will not be subject to empty house tax.
The vacant units tax law must be followed seriously
Following the issue of collecting tax from empty houses, Dawood Beginejad, vice president of Tehran Real Estate Union, said: The challenge of collecting tax from empty houses is being investigated all over the world. The residential units that are currently produced in the country are considered national capital because the government spends money to produce and supply housing to the market, and certainly no individual or organization has the right to keep all the benefits at their disposal. Vacant units should reach real people in the housing market.
The first vice president of Tehran Real Estate Union further emphasized: the government must first identify the amount of houses owned by real people, then calculate the amount of investment made by banks in the direction of housing production. In 1400, according to the financial statements of the banks, 91 thousand billion were invested, which, of course, were not for the production of real people, but for the purchase of residential units.
He pointed out: If we examine the year 1400, we will find that production decreased in this year, while in the same way, the output of bank loans to real estate producers faced a decreasing trend.
In the end, Beginejad said: The government can balance the supply and demand of the housing market by taking tax from empty houses and seriously follow up the process of taking tax from empty houses.
Source: Mehr