List of documents for tax refund when buying an apartment

Many people who buy a home do not know that there is a legal opportunity to return part of its cost from the budget. The amount of such a refund is called a property tax deduction, and the mechanism for obtaining it is determined by Art. 220 of the Tax Code.

Those who have encountered this mechanism in action have many questions about the list of documents in each specific case, ways, and time for obtaining the deduction. We will try to understand all its features and provide you with step-by-step instructions.

Documents for tax refund when buying an apartment:

• application of the established form;
• passport;
• contract of sale of an apartment;
• documents on the right of ownership (certificate, if the house is put into operation and the act of transfer, if the construction of the building has not yet been completed);
• details of the employing organization, in case of choosing the second option of receipt (required to fill out the notification);
• a notarized power of attorney, if the documents are provided by an authorized representative of the owner of the apartment.

Auxiliary list of papers, if the citizen chose the first option for obtaining (in the IFTS):

• tax return 3-NDFL;
• account details for transferring the deduction;
• transfer statement;
• certificate 2-NDFL (there will be several of them if the employee works in more than one place).

Supporting documents, if the purchase of the apartment is carried out in joint ownership:

1. Agreement on the division of the deduction between the spouses. Note that such an agreement is necessary if the price of the apartment is less than 4 million rubles. It does not need to be notarized.
2. Marriage certificate.
3. Birth certificate of the child (if the deduction is obtained for him).

We would like to note that:

1. When submitting documents by the owner himself and through a representative, both copies of the papers and their originals should be taken with you.
2. All certificates and declarations are submitted only original.
3. You can certify copies either by visiting the IFTS in person, or by a notary. In the first case, tax inspectors check the authenticity of copies of documents on the spot, comparing them with the original, and mark the confirmation.
4. The given set of papers will not be returned back.

When and where to apply?

A citizen can exercise the right to deduct using two options:

1. Option 1- it can be immediately returned within a period of 1-3 years. To do this, at the end of the reporting period, contact the IFTS and submit a certain package of documentation. Payment is made immediately to your personal account in a credit institution;
2. Option 2- return without waiting for the end of the current year. With this option, you will receive it from the employer, who will not withhold personal income tax from the salary to the budget for the whole year, realizing the receipt of the deduction in this way.

With the first method, you can apply to the tax office in the year following the one in which the purchase was made, and in the second, this can be done immediately, without waiting for the end of the year.

The entire procedure for obtaining a deduction in the first method (through the IFTS) consists of 4 steps:

1. Action 1- preparation of tax declaration, application and list of documents.
2. Action 2- transfer of the collected papers to the tax authority. This action is carried out by the owner of the apartment, with the help of his representative on a notarized power of attorney or by registered mail.
3. Action 3- Desk verification of submitted documents, which will last three months. It will end with a refusal or a decision to grant you a deduction, which the tax office will notify in writing.
4. Action 4- possible only if the IFTS makes a positive decision. Then you write an application indicating the details of your personal account, to which the deduction will be transferred. The tax authorities will make the payment within a month.

There are the following nuances when choosing the second option for obtaining a deduction:

1. It is possible to receive a deduction both for wages and for other remuneration and income taxed at a rate of 13%;
2. Declaration 3-NDFL and certificates are submitted for all years separately, and all other papers on ownership and expenses - once.
3. The duration of receipt of money will be approximately 4 months from the date of receipt of tax documents. (Three months for verification plus a month for the transfer of the deduction);
4. This procedure for collecting documents must be completed annually until the full repayment of the maximum amount.

The process of obtaining a property deduction in the second option (at the workplace) consists of the following sequential steps:

1. Action 1- collection of a set of documents for the IFTS, which includes a certificate from the employer, with the obligatory indication of its details (TIN, KPP, legal address, etc.), and applications of the established form.
2. Action 2- providing a set of papers to the IFTS in the same ways as in the first option.
3. Action 3- consideration of documents by the IFTS within one month, which ends with the issuance of a notice or refusal to provide it. It indicates the data of the taxpayer and his employer, the amount of the deduction and the period of its receipt.
4. Action 4- providing your employer with a notification from the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate along with a statement that the accounting department should carry out calculations and not withhold personal income tax during the period specified in the notification until the deduction is exhausted.

When applying the second option, you need to know some nuances:

1. The notification is made only for the current tax period, and no deduction can be received for previous years;
2. It is not required to issue a tax return and a certificate of income 2-NDFL;
3. If the notification is submitted at the place of work not from the beginning of the year, then the tax for the previous months will not be recalculated, and it can be returned next year, but through the tax service;
4. If an employee plans to change jobs, then in another organization he will not receive a deduction, since a notification is issued only once a year. The rest of the personal income tax can also be obtained only at the Federal Tax Service;

If a person officially works for several employers, then he can issue a deduction from all of them, but within the amount specified in the notice.

What is a property tax deduction?

The salary and other income of a citizen, according to the law, is a taxable base, and if he purchases housing, then its size can be reduced by the amount of the deduction within the established limit - 2 million rubles. Thus, the deduction is this withheld tax, which the state returns to a person as compensation for his expenses for the purchase of an existing property or the construction of a new property.

Everyone has the right to return exactly the amount of personal income tax (PIT) in the reporting year that the employer withheld for him.

Who is supposed to?

They can use:

1. All citizens of the Russian Federation, if they are officially employed and receive a salary or monetary reward, from which the employer withholds personal income tax at a rate of 13%.
2. Officially working foreigners living in Russia for more than 183 days and becoming tax residents.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of property deductions:

1. It is intended for both sellers and buyers of real estate. The main condition is their official work and the payment of income tax from their salary to the budget.
2. For children under the age of majority, their working parents have the right to issue it.
3. If an employee is officially employed by several employers, then he has the opportunity to receive a refund on all his jobs at the same time. Of course, documents from the tax service are provided for them separately, and the deduction will take a lot of time.
4. If the property was bought by a husband and wife, then both of them can return personal income tax from income independently of each other.
5. The deduction for property acquired in shared ownership before 2014 is paid according to the shares, and it cannot be transferred from one owner to another. For property acquired since 2014, this provision no longer applies. According to it, the deduction is provided by the owners, depending on the expenses incurred by them.
6. In case of joint ownership, the deduction is determined on the basis of a written application by agreement of the parties. It, along with other papers, is handed over to the IFTS.
7. If an exchange agreement with an additional payment served as the basis for obtaining ownership of an apartment, then the decision on the deduction will be positive, since this method of acquiring housing is allowed by the Tax Code.

Please note:

1. If you have a mixed salary (gray in an envelope and a white minimum), then the deduction will be returned only for the personal income tax withheld from the officially registered salary. Then its receipt will stretch for many years.
2. If the apartment was purchased as a joint property, sometimes it is beneficial for one of the owners to refuse their deduction, and for the other, who has a higher income, to use it in full.

Who is not entitled to a deduction:

In what cases can you get?

Here is a list of expenses that are deductible:

1. For the purchase of an apartment in an already built and just under construction apartment building.
2. Repayment of interest on loans spent on its acquisition.
3. Payment of interest on refinancing loans previously taken from Russian banks.

When calculating the deduction, expenses for repairs or finishing are included in the expenses (only if the contract specifies the purchase of a property without finishing, construction in progress).

In the list of expenses that affect the determination of the amount of the deduction, it is allowed to include the following expenses:

• for the creation of project documentation;
• for the purchase of building materials;
• to pay for services to finishers,
• for connection to centralized systems (electricity, gas, water) or their autonomous device.

Not included in the deduction of expenses for redevelopment, installation of plumbing, and if the housing is purchased with an existing interior decoration.

Deduction amount

It depends on two main parameters:

• housing costs;
• paid income tax.

The maximum amount of the deduction for new construction or the purchase of housing is 2 million rubles (before 2008 it was 1 million rubles). This means that you can receive a tax refund of no more than 260,000 rubles, which is equal to 13% of the maximum deduction, excluding interest paid on the loan.

According to the amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, when purchasing housing after 2014, the deduction can be applied to the cost of purchasing not only one, but also several apartments, if for the first time it cost less than the maximum deduction. It is provided simultaneously for a set of objects for the total amount of their costs, but only within the limit.

What period can you get?

1. You can use the deduction absolutely at any time, regardless of the prescription of buying an apartment - there are no time limits.
2. More than the personal income tax transferred to the budget by the employer, the employee will not be able to return for the year, and the time interval for receiving is limited to 3 years.
3. An individual who has not received a deduction in full during the year has the opportunity to do this in future years, its return is carried out for several years until it is finally paid off.

Additional items on the list for retirees

Any person of retirement age from 2014 can carry forward the balance of the deduction to past years if it has not been fully used, and he had at that time income taxed at a rate of 13%. The transfer interval is limited to three years. Note that this category of individuals can receive a deduction for the time preceding the year in which the right to deduction arises, unlike the rest.

To exercise their right, they must provide an additional pension certificate.

Deduction when buying an apartment on credit

The supporting documents provided to the IFTS when buying a home with a mortgage will be the following:

• mortgage agreement with a financial institution;
• loan repayment schedule, if this is a separate document, and not an annex to the mortgage agreement;
• statement of interest paid;
• documents certifying payment of the loan.

How many times is a person entitled to compensation?

You can use the right to a housing deduction only once in a lifetime, and there is no statute of limitations for it.

It can be issued for several items of property if the limit value of 2 million rubles was not fully spent for the first time. Then the citizen uses the repeated deduction in the future. This rule has been in force since 2014 and has no retroactive effect, therefore, it applies to apartments purchased only after this year.

The property deduction is provided by the state in order to increase the financial opportunities of citizens to purchase housing.

Of course, registration causes a lot of inconvenience, but if you have read our instructions well, then you will be able to calculate the benefits, correctly choose the tax refund method that suits you and go through the entire procedure without much difficulty.

1. Do not rush to make a deduction for the purchased housing, because then you can do it immediately for three years, which will reduce your time of going to the authorities.
2. In each case, specifically specify the list of documents in the Federal Tax Service.
3. To ease the burden of collecting paperwork, preparing a declaration and going to the tax office, we recommend using the services of specialized organizations that will do everything for you.