“Many businesses will not survive this blow”

Real estate tax for all legal entities will be calculated at the cadastral value

The Ministry of Finance intends to equalize the fiscal burden for companies and individuals by proposing to levy a tax on all business real estate at the cadastral value, and not at the book value, which in many cases is several times lower than the market value. The changes will predictably increase the costs of companies, many of them will be forced to close. Who will suffer the most from innovations, found out “MK”.

Now factories, factories, logo parks, warehouses and transport infrastructure facilities are on the balance sheet of organizations at their original cost or acquisition cost. Buildings are fixed assets and can be depreciated. Those. every year the price for them, and accordingly, the fees to local budgets are reduced. The annual revaluation of the cadastral value, which is often close to the market value, is not carried out.

At the same time, owners of business centers, retail premises, catering facilities, and consumer services are already paying real estate tax according to the cadastre. We add that citizens – owners of residential premises, parking spaces, garages have been paying fees at the cadastral value since 2015. The tax rate is set by each region and cannot exceed 2.2%.

The Ministry of Finance decided to eliminate this injustice and “equalize the tax burden for organizations and individuals,” according to the draft “Guidelines for the budget, tax and customs tariff policy for 2023 and the planning period of 2024 and 2025.” At the same time, exceptions will remain – structures for which the tax will still not be determined by the cadastral price. So far, there are no details either on the new design of the tax or on the timing of the transition.

As the macroeconomic adviser to the general director of Otkritie Investments Sergey Khestanov told MK: “The decision of the Ministry of Finance has its own logic. At one time, for many owners of apartments and houses, the introduction of a cadastral valuation was an unpleasant surprise. After all, the inventory cost of housing according to the BTI – and, accordingly, the tax – was tens, and sometimes hundreds of times lower than the market value. And it is not surprising that the positive experience in terms of filling the budget was transferred to legal entities. Now there is increased attention to filling the state budget, and real estate is a type of asset that cannot be taken offshore, is difficult to hide, and it is well suited for the purposes of increasing taxation.”

“When the tax burden rises during a crisis, you can understand the Ministry of Finance. But it is difficult to accept this initiative. Because, of course, this further discourages business, which is already working today in extremely difficult conditions, ”says Igor Nikolaev, chief researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Entrepreneurs also met the idea of ​​the Ministry of Finance without enthusiasm. Alexey Dolmatov, a shareholder of JSC GLIMS-Production, believes that the growth of tax liabilities will primarily affect manufacturing enterprises, in which a significant proportion of fixed assets are production, storage and auxiliary premises. According to his forecast, the number of appeals of legal entities to the courts and commissions to challenge the cadastral value of real estate objects (at Rosreestr) will increase. “In such a situation, businesses will have to cover the growth in tax expenses by increasing the prices of their goods (works, services), which will ultimately affect the end consumer,” Dolmatov is sure.

“For businesses, the implementation of such a proposal will lead to a revision of financial models and additional costs in the field of taxation,” said Alexei Mostovshchikov, Director for Development of the Orlan Systems Building Materials Marketplace. In his opinion, large logistics companies with extensive storage facilities, as well as various industries with storage and other functional premises, will fall into the risk zone.

Sergey Dryomin, general director of AS-Group, a design and expert organization, suggests not rushing with innovations: “The state first needs to determine the cadastral value of all objects, give business several years to challenge it, calculate new tax rates together with business, and only after that change the type of tax bases. The transition should be as smooth as possible. A sharp change in the base from the balance sheet to the cadastral one will be a mistake. Many businesses will not survive this blow.”

Aleksey Dolmatov proposes to use a differentiated property tax rate within the framework of this legislative initiative of the Ministry of Finance. Firstly, reduced rates for organizations using the simplified taxation system (STS), which pay property tax on real estate based on the cadastral value. Secondly, reduced rates (abolition of tax for several tax periods) for organizations that have incurred the costs of acquiring (creating) new real estate objects of a certain value, otherwise innovations will reduce the investment activity of the business. In addition, if the cadastral value is applied to all objects, then when providing collateral to the bank, it is also appropriate to use the cadastral value of the property as an assessment, ”concluded Dolmatov.