Property tax deduction: buying an apartment and mortgage

Some basic information

1. Who can receive a tax deduction? Tax resident of the Russian Federation who pays personal income tax. That is, unemployed students or individual entrepreneurs on a simplified basis cannot take advantage of the benefit.
2. The following aspect follows from this: the amount of deduction cannot be more than the amount of calculated personal income tax for the year.

   For example, Roman earns 40 thousand rubles a month, 480 thousand rubles a year, he has no other income. From this amount the employer withholds personal income tax in the amount of 62.4 thousand rubles. Roman bought an apartment for 1 million rubles and wants to receive a deduction in the amount of 130 thousand rubles (13%). Since he transferred only 62.4 thousand rubles during the year, he will be able to return this amount. The rest will have to be postponed to next year, but more on that later.

3. The tax deduction can be obtained through the employer or directly through the tax office. Through the employer, you can reimburse expenses that were incurred in the current year. Through the tax office - for the past three years.

Limitation period for receiving tax deductions

The right to receive a repeated tax deduction are those property owners who bought or built a property before 2001 and received the first tax deduction also before 2001.
The fact is that before this period, personal income tax refunds were made in accordance with the Law “On Personal Income Tax” dated December 7, 1991. The amount to be deducted was then relatively small.

Then the basis for the return of personal income tax became Art. 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which allows you to apply a deduction first in the amount of up to 1 million rubles. (since 2003), and since 2008 - already in the amount of 2 million (at the personal income tax rate of 13%, the amount to be returned is 260 thousand rubles). When purchasing an object with a mortgage, you have the right to an additional property deduction of 3 million rubles. (amount to be refunded - up to 390 thousand rubles).

All the details of obtaining a property tax deduction for interest on a mortgage loan were reviewed by ConsultantPlus experts. You can access the explanations for free right now by signing up for a trial online access to K+.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, in its ruling dated April 15, 2008 No. 311-О-О, explained that if a person exercised the right to a tax deduction before the entry into force of Art. 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, this does not entail the loss of the right to use the deduction after the entry into force of this article.

In practice, this means that, having bought an apartment, house or share before 2001 and returned the personal income tax, a person can once again return the personal income tax for a property acquired, for example, in 2002 and later. This rule also applies to the mortgage interest deduction.

Deduction when buying an apartment

The deduction limit for the purchase of an apartment is 2 million rubles, so you can return a maximum of 13% of this amount - 260 thousand rubles.

For example, if you buy an apartment for 1.5 million rubles, you can return 195 thousand rubles. And if the apartment costs 3 million rubles, then you can return a maximum of 260 thousand rubles, since this is the limit.

In the case of a new building, the right to a property deduction appears at the moment of renting out the apartment and receiving the acceptance certificate; if a resale property was purchased, at the moment the owner is entered into the Unified State Register of Real Estate. It should be noted that it does not matter when the apartment was purchased, the deduction can be made either next year or after 5 years. You may not even have an official income at the time of purchase. The main thing is that when you decide to make a deduction, you have personal income tax payments.

Carryover of balance to subsequent years

Often, it is not possible to receive a tax deduction for one year, since to do this you need to officially earn 167 thousand rubles. per month. Not everyone has that kind of income. In this case, you can use the transfer of the balance of the deduction to the next year.

How it works. For example, Anton earns 100 thousand rubles. per month and bought an apartment worth 2 million rubles in 2022. Everything is in order with the documents, the apartment is owned. Anton’s annual income is 1.2 million rubles, therefore, he can only receive 156 thousand rubles as a deduction for 2022. There will be a balance of 104 thousand rubles. To receive it, you will need to apply for a deduction as early as next 2022.

In another case, if the apartment was rented out in 2022, and now it’s 2021, Anton can apply for a deduction for 2022 and 2019 at once.

What to do if the apartment costs less than the established limit of 2 million rubles?

In this case, the taxpayer can again take advantage of the property deduction for the remainder of the limit only for other housing. For example, in 2022 an apartment worth 1 million rubles was purchased. The owner received a deduction of 130 thousand rubles for it, but there was an unspent limit of 1 million rubles. In 2022, another apartment was purchased worth 2 million rubles. In 2022, the owner will be able to transfer the balance of the deduction to this object and receive another 130 thousand rubles.

It is important to note that this rule came into force in 2014. If you have already used your right to a property deduction before 2014, then even despite the unused balance of the limit, you will not be able to receive money from the state again for purchasing an apartment.

Cost Allocation

If you are married, the deduction can be distributed to your spouse. Moreover, it does not matter which of you paid for the apartment and in whose name it was registered, since this is considered jointly acquired property. That is, for an apartment worth 3 million, the husband can declare expenses of 2 million rubles and receive a deduction of 260 thousand rubles, and the wife will then declare 1 million rubles. and will receive a deduction of 130 thousand rubles. You decide for yourself in what proportion to distribute expenses, the main thing is not to forget about the limit of 2 million rubles per person. To do this, you must submit an application for the distribution of expenses for purchasing an apartment. It is submitted once, when filling out the declaration along with other documents. When transferring the balance of the deduction to the next year, you will no longer need to write an application again; expenses are distributed in the same proportions as in the first year.

If an apartment costs 4 million rubles or more, then there is no point in filing an application for distribution. In this case, each spouse can already receive a deduction at the upper limit of the limit. Everyone just needs to submit a declaration without an application, but it is better to attach a copy of the marriage certificate if the apartment is registered to one spouse.

Required documents

In order to receive a property deduction, you need to provide tax documents that confirm ownership of the apartment and payment documents:

1. an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate or a certificate of ownership of the apartment in the case of purchasing a secondary home;
2. a transfer and acceptance certificate and an agreement for participation in shared construction in the case of purchasing housing from a developer;
3. confirmation of payment: checks, receipts, payment orders, receipts from the seller;
4. a certificate of income in form 2-NDFL for the year for which the deduction is claimed (usually the employer sends data to the tax office at the beginning of the year and the certificate is uploaded to the tax office website);
5. a statement from the spouses if they distributed the deduction among themselves;
6. a copy of the marriage certificate.

NEWS

If you have already taken advantage of the deduction when purchasing a home, the ownership of which arose before 2014, can you again apply for such a deduction for another apartment, the ownership of which arose after 2014?

Until 2014, the Tax Code contained a restriction that a tax deduction for the purchase of an apartment/house/land could be received by a person only once in his life. In this case, it did not matter at all for what amount the housing was purchased and in what amount of the deduction was used. It was impossible to get it again. For example, if a citizen bought a share in an apartment in 2005 for 100 thousand rubles. and received a deduction from it (returned 13 thousand rubles), then he could not claim another deduction.

In the new edition of the Tax Code, this restriction has been changed: now, if the deduction is not received in the maximum amount (i.e. from an amount less than 2 million rubles), then the balance can be received when purchasing other housing properties (paragraph 2, paragraphs. 1 clause 3 article 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

However, you should not rush to rejoice for those who in the past did not receive a deduction in full (from an amount of less than 2 million rubles). Unfortunately, you will not be able to receive the rest of the deduction when purchasing another home. This is due to the fact that the new rules apply only to legal relations that arose after January 1, 2014. If you have already taken advantage of the deduction for housing purchased before January 1, 2014, then the old rules apply to you - you can use (or rather have already used) the deduction only once in your life (Letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. BS-4-11 / [email protected] dated 09/18/2013, Letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 07/26/2016 No. 03-04-05/43559, dated 03/13/2015 No. 03-04-05/13501, dated 02/10/2015 No. 03-04-05/5616, clause 2 Article 2 of Law No. 212-FZ).

Let's look at a few examples to better understand the situation:

Example: In 2006, Dostoevsky F.M. bought an apartment worth 500,000 rubles and received a tax deduction from it (returned income tax in the amount of 65 thousand rubles). In January 2014, citizen Dostoevsky bought a new apartment worth 3,000,000 rubles and, having read about changes in the law, wanted to receive the rest of the deduction in the amount of 1,500 thousand rubles from the new purchase. Dostoevsky was denied a deduction for a new apartment, since he had already taken advantage of a deduction for housing purchased before 2014.

Example: In January 2014, Pushkin A.S. bought an apartment worth 1,500,000 rubles, and in February 2014 Pushkin A.S. bought a second apartment worth 1,000,000 rubles. Since both apartments were purchased after January 1, 2014, Pushkin A.S. will be able to receive a deduction in the amount of 1,500,000 rubles from the first apartment (for a return of 195 thousand rubles) and an additional deduction in the amount of 500,000 rubles from the second apartment (for a return of 65 thousand rubles).

However, please note that this rule does not apply to the mortgage interest deduction. Thus, you can receive a tax deduction on mortgage interest when purchasing a new home on credit, if you previously received the main deduction when purchasing another home (purchased before January 1, 2014)

Example: In 2011, Solodov A.V. purchased an apartment worth 1.7 million rubles with my own funds and received a tax deduction. In 2015, Solodov A.V. bought an apartment for 6 million rubles, while he took out 4 million rubles as a mortgage. Since earlier Solodov A.V. already received a deduction when buying an apartment, he will only be able to receive a deduction for mortgage interest.

It is important to pay attention to the following point: despite changes in the law, the mortgage interest deduction is always provided for only one property (even if both properties were purchased with a mortgage after January 1, 2014) clause 4, paragraph. 2 clause 8 art. 220 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Example: In January 2014, Pushkin A.S. bought an apartment worth 1,500,000 rubles with a mortgage, and in February 2014 Pushkin bought a second apartment worth 1,000,000 rubles with a mortgage. Since both apartments were purchased after January 1, 2014, Pushkin A.S. will be able to receive a deduction in the amount of 1,500,000 rubles from the cost of the first apartment (to be returned 195 thousand rubles) and to receive an additional deduction of 500,000 rubles from the second apartment (to be returned 65 thousand rubles). However, he will be able to receive a deduction from the mortgage interest paid only for one of the apartments (of his choice).

How to determine whether the right to a property deduction arose before or after January 1, 2014?

As we discussed in the last section, the applicability of the new rules of the Tax Code depends on when the right to a property deduction arose, before January 1, 2014 or after January 1, 2014.

At the same time, the process of purchasing an apartment/house can be extended over time and include both 2013 and 2014 (for example, a purchase and sale agreement was concluded in 2013, and the acceptance certificate and registration certificate were received in 2014) .

How can one determine in this case whether the new or old rules apply? It depends on the contract under which the property is purchased:

• when purchasing housing under a sales contract, the date of emergence of the right to a property deduction is considered to be the date of the property registration certificate;
• when purchasing housing under an equity participation agreement, the date of the right to a property deduction arises is the date of the transfer and acceptance certificate;

The dates of other documents are not important in most cases.

Limitation on the amount of deduction for credit interest

Until 2014, the amount of deduction for credit interest had no restrictions (regardless of the amount of mortgage interest paid, it could be deducted in full). For expensive apartments purchased with a mortgage, the amount of the mortgage interest deduction was often several times higher than the main deduction from the cost of housing (which has a limit of 2 million rubles)

For all loans received after January 1, 2014, a maximum deduction amount that can be received from mortgage interest paid has been introduced - 3,000,000 rubles.

Example: In February 2014, Gogol N.V. purchased an apartment worth 7,000,000 rubles, concluding a mortgage loan agreement with the bank, on which he must pay interest to the bank in the amount of 4,000,000 rubles. Gogol N.V. will be entitled to receive a property deduction in the amount of RUB 2,000,000. from the cost of housing and a deduction of only 3,000,000 rubles. from mortgage interest paid.

At the same time, it is worth noting that this restriction does not apply to loans received before January 1, 2014 (Clause 4, Article 2 of the Federal Law of July 23, 2013 N 212-FZ).

Example: In December 2013, Lermontov N.Yu. entered into a mortgage loan agreement with the bank and purchased an apartment worth 10,000,000 rubles. The amount of interest that Lermontov N.Yu. will have to pay the bank is 4,000,000 rubles. In this case, citizen Lermontov will be able to count on a deduction for the purchase of housing in the amount of 2,000,000 rubles (for a return of 260 thousand rubles), as well as for a deduction for mortgage interest in the amount of 4,000,000 rubles (for a return of 520 thousand rubles) . Limit of 3,000,000 rubles. the interest deduction does not apply to him (since he entered into a loan agreement before January 1, 2014).

Property deduction when purchasing an apartment with a mortgage

Those who bought an apartment with a mortgage have the right to receive two deductions: within the cost of the housing itself and for mortgage interest. As we already know, the deduction limit for the purchase of an apartment is 2 million rubles. The interest limit is 3 million rubles, that is, you can return tax in the amount of 390 thousand rubles. It is the interest in excess of payments on the principal debt that is taken into account.

You can apply for an interest deduction only after the apartment has been handed over, even if loan payments were regularly made before the handover. As soon as the housing is completed, you can return 13% of the interest paid.

For example, Ivan bought an apartment worth 2 million rubles at the beginning of 2022. into a mortgage. It was delivered only in 2022. All this time, Ivan steadily paid interest on his mortgage of 200 thousand rubles. in year. At the beginning of 2022, Ivan has the right to receive two deductions: 1) in the amount of 260 thousand rubles. for the cost of the apartment. This deduction can be taken regardless of the down payment or interest paid; 2) in the amount of 78 thousand rubles. for 600 thousand rubles. mortgage interest paid for 3 years (2017-2019). In 2022, Ivan will be able to receive another 26 thousand rubles. for interest paid in 2022 and so on until the mortgage is closed or the limit of 3 million rubles is reached. percent.

As mentioned above, not everyone will be able to make all the deductions in one year, since this requires a large “white” salary. It makes sense to do everything gradually: first, get a deduction for the cost of the apartment, dividing it over the required number of years, and then start deducting interest. There is no statute of limitations here, so you can safely apply in 2022 for a deduction for interest paid in 2015-2019.

It is worth noting that if the property was purchased with a mortgage before 2014, then the limit of 3 million rubles does not apply to the interest deduction.

Mortgage interest costs can also be distributed between spouses, for which an application must also be submitted. It does not matter who actually pays the loan and for whom the agreement is drawn up. The only difference from the distribution of expenses for the purchase of an apartment is that an application for the distribution of interest must be submitted every year. In this way, you can regulate the flow of deductions depending on life situations. For example, a married couple has divided interest expenses in half and everyone receives the same amount of deduction once a year. But in 2022, my wife went on maternity leave. In this case, in 2022, it is better to distribute all interest expenses to the spouse, since the wife did not pay personal income tax while she was on maternity leave and will not be able to receive a deduction this year.

Another important point. If, in the case of a deduction for expenses for an apartment, the balance of the limit can be transferred to another property, then with interest this will not work. Interest deduction can be made on only one property.

Required documents

To receive a deduction for an apartment purchased with a mortgage, you need all the same documents as when paying with your own funds + mortgage documents:

1. mortgage agreement;
2. certificate of interest paid (can be requested from the bank);
3. acceptance certificate and agreement of participation in shared construction;
4. confirmation of payment for the apartment: checks, receipts, payment orders, receipts from the seller;
5. a certificate of income in form 2-NDFL for the year for which the deduction is claimed (usually the employer sends data to the tax office at the beginning of the year and the certificate is uploaded to the tax office website);
6. a statement from the spouses if they distributed the deduction among themselves;
7. a copy of the marriage certificate.

Deduction limits for housing purchased before January 1, 2014

If you purchased housing before 2014 and received (or plan to receive) a property deduction for it, then the “old” rules apply to you, according to which the deduction can be obtained strictly only for one property (paragraph 27, paragraph 2, paragraph 1, art. 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as amended, valid until 01/01/2014) and in an amount of no more than 2 million rubles. (260 thousand rubles to be returned). Moreover, even if you received a deduction less than the maximum amount, you will not be able to receive it additionally when purchasing another home.

Example: In 2008, Levashov I.I. bought an apartment for 500 thousand rubles. and received a tax deduction for it (returned 65 thousand rubles of taxes paid). When purchasing an apartment in 2016, Levashov I.I. will not be able to use the deduction again, since until 2014 the property deduction was provided only once for one housing property

The credit interest deduction for housing purchased before January 1, 2014 had no restrictions on the amount (you could return 13% of all mortgage interest paid), but it could only be received on the same property for which you received the principal deduction (deduction for purchase expenses). This is due to the fact that until 2014, the main property deduction and the interest deduction were not separated and constituted a single type of deduction (Article 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as amended, valid until 01/01/2014).

Example: In 2012, Ivanchenko A.A. I bought an apartment and received a tax deduction for it. In 2013, Ivanchenko bought another apartment with a mortgage and wanted to get a deduction on loan interest. The tax office legally denied him the deduction, since for housing purchased before January 1, 2014, the main deduction and interest deduction could only be received for a single housing property.

However, it is worth noting that if you purchased a home before January 1, 2014 and only took advantage of the deduction for purchase expenses, then you can receive a deduction for credit interest on other housing, but only if it was purchased after January 1, 2014. We will look at this situation in detail below in the section - Is it possible to get a deduction for credit interest if you previously only used a deduction for purchase expenses?

FAQ:

Can I transfer my right to a deduction to my spouse?

No you can not. You can only distribute expenses according to the deduction, but no one can get it for you.

What to do if the apartment was sold, but an application for deduction was not submitted?

If you bought the apartment and have documents confirming payments and ownership, then you can apply for a deduction. The fact that the apartment has already been actually sold is not a basis for refusal, since you have incurred the costs of purchase.

We bought an apartment, the spouse distributed all the expenses on himself and receives a deduction. Can I get a deduction for myself when buying another apartment?

Yes, you can, since in fact you did not incur expenses and you still have the right to deduct.