As you know, one of the most important components of the budget of any state is taxes. They are local and national and fill the corresponding budgets. One of the mandatory taxes in the Russian Federation is the land tax. What is it and who should pay it? Are there land tax benefits for pensioners, people with disabilities, and other categories of citizens? How to calculate the amount of the fee and what it depends on? Not every Russian knows the answers to all these questions.
Land collection: to whom and why is it assigned
Everyone who owns or uses a piece of land is required to pay tax. This collection is called land. It does not matter whether the owner of the land is an individual, whether he is registered as an individual entrepreneur or whether the land belongs to the organization. The rule here is very simple: if there is land, pay tax. The exception to this rule is only one - if the land is leased, then the tax is paid by its actual owner, that is, the lessor. So if you do not have a lease, you simply must know how to calculate the land tax. Although this calculation is not too complicated, there are still a few nuances in it.
The tax base
To understand how to calculate the land tax, you need to find out exactly which areas should be taxed and who should pay for what, that is, determine your tax base.
Land collection is an annual phenomenon. For enterprises, the area of the taxable area includes:
- plots occupied by buildings and various structures;
- adjacent territories used to support the life of the enterprise;
- technical and sanitary zones of existing facilities.
The basis for determining the total area are documents on the right to use, own or own land.
When establishing the tax base, it is worth remembering: for those plots that are designed to service premises belonging to different owners, the fee is calculated separately for each building.
If the building is in shared ownership, then the land tax is calculated in proportion to the share of ownership of each of the owners.
It is quite difficult to calculate the land tax for agricultural enterprises. The fact is that in this case the division of plots into agricultural and non-agricultural is of great importance. In addition, the location of the site, its quality and composition, all these parameters affect the tax rate.
What is considered an object of taxation
From the foregoing, it can be concluded that land tax for individuals, as well as organizations and enterprises, is paid from any land plot (as well as from its share) provided for use, property or possession.
The objects of taxation are:
- agricultural land plots provided to individuals or enterprises for horticulture, animal husbandry, gardening or summer house construction;
- allotments provided to citizens for the organization of personal subsidiary plots, as well as peasant (farmer's) farmsteads;
- agricultural land provided to business associations, cooperatives, partnerships, as well as other commercial and non-commercial enterprises, agricultural educational institutions (universities, technical schools), research organizations, educational and experimental farms;
- sections of the recreational area used to organize recreation, sports, cultural and recreational and tourist activities; boarding houses, campsites, rest houses, tourist parks, camps and children's stations, forest parks and other similar objects;
- lands of forest and water funds;
- plots reserved for energy, communications, industry, transport and other facilities;
- lands used for the activities of broadcasting and television organizations;
- other sites.
It should be remembered that the date of occurrence of rights to a particular site is considered the moment of registration in the Unified State Register.
Tax rates
First of all, the land tax rate depends on how the plot is used.
If the allotment is used for individual housing construction, for its own subsidiary plots or as agricultural territory, the size of the tax will be no more than 0.3% of the cadastral price of the plot. At the same rate, tax is paid for engineering plots, as well as land allotted for customs, national security and defense.
If the land is used for commercial purposes, the land tax rate automatically rises to 1.5%. In some cases, the collection rate may be less than three tenths of a percent - it depends on the policy of local authorities.
Cadastral value of the plot
Since the payment of land tax directly depends on the cadastral valuation, let's look at what it is and where it can be found. The cadastral price of a land plot is determined from the state valuation of land. According to the legislation, municipal authorities conduct such an assessment at least once every five years.
It happens like this:
- once every 5 years, the executive bodies of a subject of the Russian Federation decide on the need for a cadastral valuation;
- then the Rosreestr Administration prepares a list of lands taking into account the characteristics of each municipality;
- after the final approval of the list, an assessment is made;
- information obtained during the assessment is sent back to the Federal Register of Registers;
- upon receipt of information, the Rosreestr Administration publishes on its official website information on the cadastral value of land allotments.
How to challenge the value of land
As you already understood, in order to know how to calculate the land tax, you need to know the cost of the plot itself and its parameters. However, in practice, one often encounters the fact that the cadastral value of land exceeds its real market price. The fact is that the cost of the plot is formed on the basis of the average price of the area in the cadastral quarter, while the location of the land itself is not taken into account. Because of this, the tax amount is unreasonably high.
An example is the Moscow region. Not so long ago, residents of this region were faced with the fact that the land tax in the Moscow region was several dozen times higher than in previous periods.
If you are also faced with a similar situation, you need to know that you can challenge the cost of the site by contacting a special commission. Two reasons can be distinguished for such a review:
- incorrect information received on a specific object;
- appointment in relation to the land plot of its real value, bringing it to the market indicator.
The last reason is optimal, since it allows you to really reduce the price of the inventory.
To challenge the cost of the site you need:
- order a report on its value in an independent appraisal company;
- prepare the necessary package of documents and submit it to the registry office;
- to conduct an examination of the report in the company of the evaluator
- submit to the registry department a site passport and certified copies of documents of title to it.
The procedure for calculating and paying tax
In principle, it is not difficult to calculate the cadastral tax on land.
In general, the formula looks like this:
ZN = Ks x Sn x K , where:
- ZN - land tax;
- Ks - cadastral value of the allotment;
- Sn - tax rate (from 0.3 to 1.5, depending on the purpose of the site);
- K is a coefficient that shows the ratio of the number of months of ownership of the land plot to the total number of months in a year; for example, if you purchased a plot 9 months ago, then K = 9/12 = 0.75. If you used the site the whole past year, then K = 12/12 = 1.
It is important to remember that the tax is calculated only for the full months of use (ownership) of the land plot.
If the allotment belongs to you on an equity basis, then you must pay the tax in proportion to your share.
Not later than 30 days before the time of payment, the tax service will send a notification to the land tax payer (at the place of registration). This document indicates the amount, tax base and date of payment.
Who is exempt from land tax
You need to know that there are categories of citizens for whom various land tax benefits are provided. Partially reduced the amount of tax on land for such population groups:
- Heroes of the Russian Federation;
- Heroes of Socialist Labor, as well as knights of the Order of Glory and Labor Glory;
- Heroes of the Soviet Union;
- family members of military personnel receiving survivor benefits;
- large families with 3 or more minor children, including those trained in educational institutions of any legal form, or who are in the army service until they are 23 years old;
- disabled people of I or II group
- old-age pensioners who are dependent on disabled persons of group II or III or persons who have received disabilities before 2004;
- children under the age of majority;
- veterans and invalids of the Second World War and (or) military operations;
- liquidators of the Chernobyl accident and PA Mayak;
- received radiation as a result of the dumping of radioactive waste into Techa and explosions at the Semipalatinsk test site;
- nuclear and thermonuclear weapon testers;
- persons who received radiation sickness as a result of tests or exercises related to any types of nuclear weapons and facilities, including space ones.
For all of the above categories, land tax per year can be reduced by reducing the cadastral value of the plot by an amount not exceeding 10 thousand rubles.
Representatives of the indigenous minorities of Siberia and the Far East are completely exempted from paying the land tax in relation to those lands that are used for life and agriculture.
Until some time, pensioners were also completely exempted from paying the tax. However, with the adoption of the new Tax Code in 2005, land tax benefits for pensioners were canceled. Now, persons of retirement age pay the tax on a common basis.
Partial tax deduction
However, there are categories of citizens who are entitled to partial land tax benefits.
- 25% of the accrued fee have the right to “knock off” employees of budgetary enterprises at various levels (if both spouses are such employees);
- Employees of organizations financed by their municipal budget will save 50%. Also, at the discretion of local authorities, minor tax reliefs and pensioners may be established.
Amendments made in 2015
To know how to calculate the land tax correctly, you just need to follow the annual changes and additions in this area. For example, in 2015, some amendments were made to the Land Tax section of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. According to article 387 (paragraph 2), for all tax payers listed in this chapter, the rate should be set at the discretion of the municipality. Municipal self-government bodies also determine the procedure and deadlines for paying a land fee.
From the objects of taxation were excluded:
- areas seized or restricted in use;
- land occupied under valuable objects;
- allotments that are part of the forest fund;
- lands occupied by water bodies of state property.
However, the most important change in land tax laws is that the amount of tax is now tied to the market value of the plot. In practice, this means that the amount of collection will increase.
Fines
All owners and users of land should remember that paying a fee is not a right, but an obligation. Therefore, failure to pay, as well as untimely payment of the tax, entails penalties.
They are applied immediately after the warning, and if the amount of the debt exceeds 1,500 rubles, the documents will be submitted to the court. In the most critical cases, if the land tax is not paid, the land plot can be taken from the owner by a court decision.