2024-09-29 12:06:26
Three months of “fire” in the market for sellers and buyers of real estate will be the last, as AADE speeds up the “dusting” of thousands of cases of purchase and sale, inheritances, parental benefits and donations of real estate.
It should be noted that by the end of the year, the goal is to have “opened” 2,500 files characterized as “high risk” for tax evasion and “black” money laundering, and at the same time to have “leaf and feather” all the pending real estate transfer cases of 2018 which expire at the end of this year.
The central aim of the audit mechanism is to reveal violations of tax legislation, mainly after the introduction of the tax-free limit of 800,000 euros that applies to parental benefits, but also the finding that all movements are made by notaries and clients only electronically through myProperty, reasons why the auditors will proceed to “x-ray” the “whereabouts” of buyers and sellers, to open bank accounts, but even to “scan” the financial profile of the debtors.
It is worth noting that under the microscope of the auditors there are already over 40,000 property transfer cases that took place after March 2021, the date of the launch of the myProperty online platform, and the payment of the price was made entirely in cash. As usual the audits will start with the high value contracts, with the auditors “dusting” not only the buyers, but also the sellers, to identify cases of virtual real estate transfers.
At the same time, the open cases of 2018 concerning real estate transfers which are outside the system of objective determination and the taxpayers who have not accepted the preliminary assessment of the Tax Office are also in the spotlight.
It should be mentioned that the pending cases of 2018 are high on the list of the tax control mechanism as they expire on December 31, 2024, and before the end of the year the “rebates” with the extra taxes and fines should have been sent to the taxpayers.
It should be noted that last year alone the High Wealth Taxpayer Audit Center conducted dozens of audits in tax cases of real estate transfers, donations, inheritances, parental benefits, ENFIA, Special Real Estate Tax and other capital taxes, charging taxes and fines totaling 12.23 million euros, from of which 1.48 million euros were collected.
Checks in eight fields
In this context and based on the instructions given to the audit mechanism, the audit will be thorough for:
1. Property transfer tax cases with temporary property value. These cases concern real estate in areas outside of objective values, the taxpayer has not accepted the pre-estimated temporary value of the D.O.Y. and the difference between the declared value and the overestimation exceeds 30% or the value of the overestimation exceeds 100,000 euros. In these cases, the conditions for exemption from the transfer tax, the area of the property as well as the price of the property stated in the contract are checked.
2. Cases of parental benefits of first residence. In these cases, it is checked whether the child is entitled to exemption from the parental allowance tax, due to primary residence.
3. Real estate transfer tax cases for which a first residence exemption was granted based on the value of the property.
4. Taxation cases of inheritances – gifts – parental benefits, which include securities, shares, shares, shares and generally businesses (not listed on a stock exchange).
5. Cases of special tax on real estate, regarding exemption documents.
6. Cases of transfer of real estate to foreigners within the framework of the “Golden Visa” program, but also outside of it.
7. Cases in which, in the transfer file, there was no certificate of payment or exemption from ENFIA for the transferred properties.
8 Real estate transfer cases with cash suspected of using undeclared and “black” funds for real estate purchases.
In addition to the Tax Office, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority is also involved in these cases.
Notaries and mortgagees for the ENFIA certificate are also targeted by the audit mechanism, as it examines whether the ENFIA of the last 5 years has been paid for the properties transferred, as well as any “tricks” with short-term leases as well as transfers of properties with cash after their radical ban.