Do pensioners pay land tax, are there any special benefits?

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Published: 04/01/2017

Reading time: 15 min

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Payers of land tax from among individuals can be both individual entrepreneurs who attract land for business, and ordinary citizens who use their land for personal purposes.

One of the very common groups of land owners among them are pensioners, who often engage in personal farming on their plots, vegetable gardening, gardening, etc. The specifics of establishing and paying taxes for this category of payers will be discussed further in more detail.

Legislative regulation of the issue
Obligation to pay tax
Calculation and payment procedure Provision of data on the land plot to the Federal Tax Service
Receiving a notification from the Federal Tax Service with the tax amount
Visit the Federal Tax Service to receive a receipt yourself
Payment of the specified amount

Current tax incentives

Short answer

At the legislative level, all owners are equal - be it a young owner of a cottage with a land plot of several hectares or an old man with a country house on land of several hundred square meters. They all must pay the appropriate tax.

But it is impossible to compare the income of working citizens and people of retirement age with modest social benefits called pensions. Therefore, the Duma, at the instigation of the President, made changes to the Tax Code: a tax benefit for pensioners appeared. Its essence is that this category of citizens does not pay tax on 6 acres of land.

Let's show how this works with an example. Pensioner T. has real estate in the form of a dacha and a garage, built on a plot of land with an area of 10 acres. In accordance with the new rules, land tax will be charged only on 4 acres (10-6).

List of benefits for land taxation in the Russian Federation

Land tax is included in regional payments, that is, territorial authorities independently establish payment requirements and procedures. The amount of the tax payment is determined by the area of the plot and the current cadastral value.

In the Russian Federation there is a list of taxes that citizens of retirement age should not pay to the treasury. Certain taxes are payable in whole or in part at a reduced rate. In the field of land taxation, most benefits apply to agricultural enterprises and producers. Among individuals, benefits apply exclusively to representatives of indigenous inhabitants of the regions of the Far North, and in the only case - if the lands are used for the purpose of conducting traditional crafts for the area.

Another type of benefit is a reduction in the tax base, that is, the amount on which the tax is calculated. The discount amount is 10 thousand rubles. , the list of categories for which the benefit applies includes:

Heroes of Russia;
Heroes of the USSR;
holders of the Order of Glory;
persons with disabilities of the first and second groups (if the second was awarded before 2004);
WWII veterans and military invalids;
participants in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident;
citizens who received a dose of radiation during tests and natural disasters.

Ordinary citizens of retirement age without disabilities or other special features are not included in the list, so they must pay tax on existing land plots in full.

What is land tax paid for?

The objects of land tax assessment for pensioners are plots of land that belong to them by right of ownership or are in free use on an indefinite basis (the main feature: can be passed on by inheritance).

In this case, the plots must be located within the same municipality and have a cadastral number in the unified land register indicating the area, delineated boundaries on the map, category of land allotment and coordinates of each boundary pillar.

Land tax is not charged:

leased;
transferred for free use on an urgent basis;
included in the forest and water resources of the Russian Federation;
under objects of culture, history, archeology included in the UNESCO list;
withdrawn from circulation completely or having restrictions (national parks, nature reserves, military bases, prisons, colonies, camps, burial grounds, cemeteries).

How was payment done previously?

The legislation on land tax provided that the obligation to pay tax by pensioners existed until 2018. Exemption was established for only certain categories of retired persons.

These included categories of WWII veterans, participants in the DB, heroes of the USSR and Russia, persons with disabilities of groups 1 and 2, disabled children, victims of radiation exposure, etc.

Local authorities, taking into account the capabilities available to them, could expand the category of pensioners at their level. Sometimes they were exempt from paying tax if they were unemployed, or they were subject to a preferential tax rate, for example, 50%.

The procedure for paying taxes in different municipalities for pensioners varied, that is, in some there were benefits for pensioners, and in others there were no.

Who pays land tax

Land tax is paid by individuals and legal entities who own and use land plots. The basis for payment are notifications in written (sent by mail) or electronic (visible in the Personal Account on the Federal Tax Service website) form.

Payment is made in accordance with the deadlines approved by regional entities, but not earlier than February 1 of the year following the reporting period. Those. For 2021, land tax can be paid after 02/01/2021.

Do pensioners pay land tax?

Do pensioners have to pay land tax? Yes, because In the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, all owners and users of land plots are indicated as land tax payers, regardless of their age and status (residents or non-residents of the Russian Federation).

What to do if you receive a receipt for payment of land tax?

If a pensioner has received a payment for land tax, there is no need to panic.

We will provide you with recommendations and step-by-step instructions on how to act in such a situation:

contact the district tax office and find out whether he is entitled to tax exemption or certain benefits;
if benefits are provided, then the pensioner must attach the above documents to the payment slip and fill out a standard application. After this, he submits documents for registration of land tax benefits;
The pensioner does not have to pay the receipt. If there is a benefit, the citizen will be given a new adjusted receipt with a reduced amount that must be paid;
if a person of retirement age does not have the right to claim benefits and concessions, then he must pay the initial receipt in full.

If the pensioner paid the initial payment and then submitted documents for the benefits, then it is necessary to write an application for a refund. To do this, fill out a standard application, to which are attached the bank account details where the tax office will transfer the overpaid funds.

Land tax benefits for pensioners

Tax benefits for pensioners for paying land tax can be of several levels and are prescribed not only in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Federal benefits

Exemption of owners of movable and immovable property of retirement age from payment of relevant taxes can be carried out on the basis of various Federal Laws and the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, various federal laws provide exemption from land tax:

heroes of the USSR and Russia;
WWII participants;
Chernobyl survivors (military, specialists and workers who participated in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident);
blockade survivors - people who survived the siege of Leningrad;
disabled people of groups 1 and 2, etc.

Attention: a complete list of persons exempt from paying all types of property taxes on the basis of the Federal Law can be viewed on the Federal Tax Service website.

In addition, representatives of small indigenous peoples living in the northern regions of the country, Siberia and the Far East, as well as their communities that use land plots to preserve and develop their ethnicity: way of life, crafts, management, but already on the basis of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Also, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides benefits for all types of pensioners in the country in the form of reducing the area of the land plot on which the tax is calculated by 600 square meters. m (clause 5 of article 391 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

A reduction in the tax base (tax authorities call a tax deduction) is carried out in relation to 1 plot of land. At the same time, the pensioner retains the right to make a choice if there are several plots of land, regardless of the category of land, type of use (ownership or perpetual free use) and location.

Let us illustrate this with several examples.

1. Pensioner L. has two plots: 500 and 700 m2 It seems more logical to make a deduction from 7 acres. But the cadastral value of a smaller plot is almost 2 times higher. Therefore, an application is submitted to deduct 5 hectares from a smaller plot and 1 hectare from a larger one. The law allows such manipulation.

2. Family couple A. of retirement age own 12.6 acres of land under a private house in a rural area. They are registered to the head of the family. You had to pay for 660 m2 of land. On the advice of the tax inspector, they re-registered the plot for two: the husband 6.6 acres, the wife exactly 6 acres. As a result of this operation, the tax base was reduced to 60 m2.

Important: with the increase in the retirement age, from 2021, deductions for paying land tax for women will remain from the age of 55, for men - from the age of 60.

Local benefits

Land tax is a municipal type of taxation. This means that the Legislative Assembly of federal entities, as well as the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol, can establish additional benefits for pensioners, as well as other categories of taxpayers, for example, exempt labor veterans, members of a gardening partnership, persons , over 80 years old, etc.

You can find out about the existence of additional benefits in each region here or call tel. 8 800-222-22-22 (Federal Tax Service contact center).

Obligation to pay tax

In general cases, the need to pay land tax for pensioners is established under the same conditions as for other categories of citizens. In particular, for this they must own a plot of land with one of the following rights:

own;
the right of lifelong inheritable ownership (it is worth considering that this type of right is granted exclusively to citizens);
right of unlimited (permanent) use.

As for two more grounds for using land, namely lease and gratuitous use (both fixed-term and indefinite), in this case the pensioner does not have tax obligations.

Since in these cases the land actually belongs to other entities, it is they who must pay money to the budget for it.

The specific land tax rate is set by local authorities, but with mandatory consideration of the requirements of federal legislation:

0.3% - for certain types of plots (including agricultural plots, as well as those intended for gardening, livestock farming, vegetable gardening, provided for personal subsidiary or dacha farming, occupied by housing stock);
1.5% - for all other categories of land.

Obligations to pay land fees may be closely related to another property tax that is assessed on real estate owned by pensioners. This can be a house (country house or residential) or a garage located on its land plot, as well as an apartment, room or parts (shares) of these real estate objects. An important requirement in this case is the fact that these objects belong to the pensioner on the right of ownership.

Unlike land tax, benefits for which for pensioners are established only at the regional level, for property tax they are determined at the federal level.

In particular, they are completely exempt from paying tax, but only on one piece of real estate owned by them. As for all other types of real estate, they are subject to taxation in accordance with the general procedure.

For example, if a pensioner has an apartment and a dacha, he can choose for which of these objects he will pay tax (naturally, it will be the amount that is less). However, in this case, regional benefits can also be additionally established, which will apply to other types of property. When establishing them, other characteristics of the payer are necessarily taken into account, in addition to his belonging to the category of pensioners.

It is worth considering that property and land taxes may increase significantly from 2021, since the procedure for their calculation has changed somewhat. In particular, the tax base for their determination is now the cadastral, rather than the inventory value of the property.

In this case, the value of the first indicator may be several times higher than the value of the second, which will accordingly affect the final amount payable.

What to do if your application for lease of land is refused? Find out in our material! You will learn how to allocate a share in our feature article.

How to take the extract you need from the house register, you will read in our material at the link.

Procedure for applying for benefits

Benefits for paying land tax are of a declarative nature: if there is no corresponding application to the tax and duties inspectorate, there are no benefits. This statement also applies to the federal deduction from the tax base in the amount of 6 acres.

Registration of benefits is carried out in several stages:

an application is written to the Federal Tax Service for the provision of benefits;
documents are collected;
the application, along with the collected documents, is transferred to the Federal Tax Service, and to any one, not just at the place of residence.

Statement

If you plan to visit the tax office in person or send documents by mail, an application for a land tax deduction must be completed on paper. Previously, it was written in free form. Since 2021, a sample form developed by the Federal Tax Service has been in effect (you can download it here).

It must indicate:

name of the Federal Tax Service where the application is submitted;
Full name of the payer and his residential address;
cadastral number of the land plot;
the basis for its use;
grounds for obtaining a deduction or exemption from payment;
attached list of documents;
date of writing and signature.

Completing a package of documents

To receive a deduction you need only 3 documents:

statement;
photocopy of the main pages of the passport;
copy and original of the pension certificate.

How to apply for benefits for pensioners?

Registration of benefits for making land payments is of an application nature, that is, a citizen must submit an application to the tax authority, having previously collected a package of documents to obtain a benefit or reduce the amount of tax.

The process of applying for benefits consists of several stages:

obtaining current information on taxation from the district administration. Employees of the institution must provide the pensioner with up-to-date information regarding current tax benefits and tax deduction opportunities for retired citizens;
collection and preparation of documentation package. To submit an application, you need a passport, pension certificate, documents on ownership of a specific plot of land;
submitting an application to the district tax authority. Forms to fill out are available at every tax office;
receiving notification of benefits. In regions, the time frame for processing an application and checking documentation may vary. The pensioner receives an official notice of a reduction or cancellation of payment of land tax.

After receiving the right to a benefit, recalculation is carried out for a period not exceeding 3 years. During this period, the pensioner has the right to receive compensation for the amount paid, and this amount can be impressive.

Transfer of documents to the tax office

There are several ways to submit documents to the Federal Tax Service:

during a personal inspection visit. The method has both pros and cons. The disadvantages include the loss of time. There are several advantages:

You don’t have to fill out an application - the inspector will type it on the computer.
An answer will be given immediately regarding acceptance of the deduction or refusal.
All mistakes made when filling out the papers yourself will be detected and corrected.
The visitor can personally verify that the deduction has been accepted.

through MFC. The procedure is paid, but frees you from routine work (the application will be filled out by a service employee in the presence of the client);
with the help of a legal representative with a power of attorney certified by a notary;
by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt. It must contain a list of the attached documents, and copies of the passport and pension book are certified by the head of the post office.

The development of IT technologies allows you to use one more method: through your Personal Account on the Federal Tax Service website. Instructions are presented in detail, with photographs, in the work “Transport Tax for Pensioners.”

What has changed in legislation in recent years

Until changes were made to the legislation, that is, until 2018, federal benefits intended for pensioners were provided. They assumed that ten thousand rubles had to be subtracted from the value of the land plot, after which taxes were calculated.

This decision is considered by experts to be unfair. This conclusion is based on the fact that equal amounts were calculated from the value of plots located in the capital and in the villages. In these cases, the price fixed in the cadastre implied significant differences for different areas of the country.

In addition, ordinary pensioners could not use the benefit in question. It was assumed that only citizens deprived of the ability to work, as well as veterans, had the right to apply for a preference.

In connection with the introduction of amendments to land legislation in 2021, the benefit began to be expressed not in the established value, but in hundred square meters. It is assumed that currently citizens may not pay taxes on 6 acres of land. This preference applies to all categories of pensioners.

Important! The preference in question can also be used by a person who has taken a well-deserved retirement with length of service. Such situations assume that the citizen’s age category is lower than that of ordinary pensioners.

Tax benefits for pensioners - how to take advantage of them

When a person has grounds for using exemptions when calculating land taxes, and this benefit is not specified in the received notification of the need to make a payment, then the citizen needs to contact the tax authority with an application.

There are several ways to send a document:

personal transfer;
by mail;
using MFC;
when using a personal account located on the official portal of the Federal Tax Service.

In a situation where a citizen previously sent such an application to the authorized body, but did not write that the right to use the benefit applies to a specific period, in the future there is no need to submit such applications to the Federal Tax Service.

There are also situations when preferences are provided automatically. This happens when a person does not submit an application for the use of preferences, while the Federal Tax Service receives information about his/her reaching the established age. For males this is 60 years old, for females - 55.

A certain list of documentation will need to be attached to this act. It includes:

written confirmation of disability status (this certificate can only be obtained by contacting a healthcare institution);
if a person has the status of a Hero, then this fact also requires documentary confirmation;
if a person has received pension payments, then in addition he provides the corresponding certificate.

Attention! The list of additional documentation depends on the basis on which preferences are assigned. To clarify information on this matter, you will need to contact the authority responsible for calculating benefits.

Who is eligible for the benefit?

In order to reduce the financial burden for citizens classified as vulnerable from a social point of view, the legislator introduces benefits.

There are these types of preferences:

Established at the federal level . In this case, the citizen’s place of residence does not affect the ability to use the benefit. Today, preference is expressed in the use of tax deductions amounting to 6 acres.
Local benefits . In this case, the possibility of using relaxations is affected by the territory of residence of a particular person and the municipality where the allotment is located. This means that benefits are applied according to an act issued by the authority of a particular entity.

Different regions provide individual preferences. Not all entities have the financial capacity to establish benefits for pensioners.

To clarify the issue of using relaxations, you must contact your local administration. Currently, citizens who have applied for a well-deserved retirement in accordance with the provisions of current legal acts can receive a preference. It does not matter on what basis the payment of pension funds is made.

If we talk about the status of an old-age pensioner, then you need to reach 55 and 60 years of age. It is worth considering that starting from 2021, reforms in the pension sector are being implemented across the country. As this process is completed, different minimum retirement ages will be established. By 2023, these indicators will be 60 and 65 years.

In addition, the following categories of persons are entitled:

citizens who have the status of a disabled person or a WWII veteran;
those who have lost their ability to work, including in childhood;
persons holding the title of Hero of the Russian Federation or the USSR;
citizens injured as a result of the Chernobyl accident.

The deduction can only be used for one plot.

How to calculate the tax if the plot is more than 6 acres

If a citizen is entitled to use the preference, but the plot has a larger area than the one to which the deduction applies, he will have to pay tax. In such a situation, a certain formula is used to calculate the amount to deposit funds into the Federal Tax Service.

It looks like this:

N = NB *ST*K*DS-L,

Where:

N – amount of tax payment;
NB – tax base (determined based on the value reflected in the cadastre);
ST – rate calculated by each individual subject individually;
K – coefficients that depend on the period of ownership of the plot;
DS – presence of ownership shares;
L – preferences.

By substituting the required values, you can calculate the payment amount.

How many acres of land are tax-free

According to the previous edition of the Tax Code, certain groups of citizens had the right to a fixed deduction of 10,000 rubles. from the tax base for a land property in one municipal territory. These are the following categories of Russians:

Heroes of the USSR, Heroes of the Russian Federation, full holders of the Order of Glory;
disabled people of groups I and II;
disabled children;
disabled since childhood;
veterans, disabled people of the Great Patriotic War and other military operations;
persons injured in the accident at Mayak, testing at the Semipalatinsk test site, Chernobyl victims;
participants in test operations of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, accidents at nuclear installations of military facilities;
those who received/suffered radiation sickness or became disabled during nuclear tests, work and exercises.

For these citizens, the mandatory payment, like the land tax for pensioners, is formed taking into account a reduction not by the amount of 10 thousand rubles, but by the cadastral value of six hundred square meters of land. When owning several plots of land, the tax benefit according to the new principle can be used for one object at a time at the payer’s choice.

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Algorithm for canceling tax benefits

Those entities that established them have the right to cancel tax breaks. Tax benefits related to federal ones are canceled in accordance with amendments made to the law, in particular, to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. At the local level, decisions in the field of taxes can be canceled by the laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. But according to the Letter from the Ministry of Finance dated 2012 under N03-02-08/92, the benefits established by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation cannot be changed or canceled by local legislative bodies.

6 acres of land

The law establishes that if a plot of land owned by a pensioner is more than 6 acres, the tax is paid to the budget. Since 2017, citizens who are retired and whose plot of land is less than 6 acres are exempt from paying the land plot tax. But the benefit is given only for one piece of real estate. In practice, this means that if a pensioner after 80 years of age owns two or more real estate properties, then the benefit applies to one of them. This rule is established by Art. 391 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

According to local legislation, pensioners are also entitled to tax breaks. In some regions, the area of the plot for which you do not need to pay a mandatory fee may be more than 6 acres. It is necessary to check the establishment of benefits in a specific region. This can be done on the official website of the tax authority.

Procedure and features of tax calculation

The calculation of tax in a situation where the payer is entitled to a benefit directly depends on what exactly it is. The following options are possible:

Reducing the tax amount by a certain amount. For example, some categories of payers are provided with discounts on its payment (most often in the amount of 50%). In this case, the tax is calculated according to the general rules, after which the result obtained is multiplied by 50%. This amount will be payable.
Reducing the tax base. In this case, before calculating the tax using the formula, you must first establish the base on which this will happen. To do this, you need to subtract the amount of the deduction established by law from the cadastral value of the plot indicated in the documents. The resulting figure is then multiplied by the current interest rate.

As a rule, the payer will not need to independently calculate the amount of tax unless he is a legal entity. For individual entrepreneurs and citizens, all calculations are carried out by tax office employees, after which they receive a ready-made notification with the total amount.

However, it is worth knowing the formula for land tax and the amount of benefits due to check the correctness of the calculations of the Federal Tax Service.

How to correctly draw up a land donation agreement? What is the tax rate for an apartment and what does it depend on? Read more about this in our article. Do you want to issue a deed of gift for a share of an apartment? The step-by-step procedure is described here.