콘도 투자와 관련하여 궁금한 점(세금)

      새 콘도를 분양 받았다가 완공된 후 팔았을 때 세금은 얼마나 내야할까요? 세 경우로 볼 수 있습니다. 전혀 내지 않아도 되는 경우가 있고, 콘도의 가격이 올라 얻게 된 소득(capital gain)의 50%를 소득으로 보고 해서 자신에게 해당되는 세율 만큼 세금을 내야 하는 경우도 있습니다. 세번째의 경우는 오른 가격 전액을 소득으로 보고하여 세율 만큼의 세금을 내야하는 경우입니다.

      세금을 전혀 내지 않아도 되는 경우는 본인이 집이 하나뿐이고 그 집에 살았을 때입니다. 집이 두 채 이상일지라도 그 집이 Principle Residence일 경우는 세금을 내지 않아도 됩니다.

      두번째의 경우는 콘도를 투자용으로 분양받았다가 팔 경우 입니다. 이때 주의해야 할 점은 입주 후(final closing) 일정 기간이 지난 후 팔아야 한다는 것입니다. 입주 후 얼마되지 않아 팔았을 경우 capital gain이 아닌 비지니스 소득으로 보아 혜택을 보지 못할 수도 있지요. 짧은 시간에 집을 샀다 팔았다를 반복할 경우 비지니스로 보아 소득의 100%를 신고해야 합니다. 정기적으로 집을 샀다가 수리하여 되팔기를 반복할 경우 Principle Residence로 인정받지 못하고 비지니스로 분류되어 세금을 내야할지도 모릅니다.

      유의할 점은 분양시기로 부터가 아니라 입주(final closing) 후부터 파는 때까지의 기간을 따져야 한단느 것입니다. 분양으로 부터 입주때까지는 3년에서 5년의 기간이 걸립니다. 주로 건축에 걸리는 시간이지요. 대개는 예정되었던 입주시기보다 늦어집니다. 짧게는 6개월에서 길게는 1년 이상 늦어지는 경우도 있지요. Final Closing후의 시점부터 일정 기간이 지나 팔아야 Capital Gain으로 인정받을 수 있음을 잊지말아야 하겠습니다.    

 

   Some sellers of new Toronto condos are seeing years of price gains in a booming market taxed away. Canada Revenue Agency auditors have added penalties to taxes for those who claimed their condo as a home, but soon changed their minds and sold.

 The CRA has yet to disclose how many sellers have been affected. But Toronto tax lawyer and text author David Sherman and other tax experts, accuse auditors of unfairly ignoring some legitimate explanations for sales. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wants the CRA to collect more than $500 million extra from suspected tax cheats this year.

   “The auditors have applied a rare 50 per cent penalty for ‘gross negligence,’ even on those who had never owned a condo previously,” says Sherman.

    Sam Papadopoulos, a CRA spokesman, said the agency chooses areas to audit based on “current and emerging risks to the tax base.” The CRA is looking at real estate because of the recent condo boom “for which we have discovered non-reporting of taxable income – builder GST/HST housing rebates and capital gains/income in sales of real property.”

    He added that auditors look at such things as the seller’s intention, the type of property they sold, the frequency of purchase and sales, why they sold and how the purchase and sales fit with the person’s ordinary business. He said auditors do not receive bonuses to encourage them to perform more audits.

    Canada has three tiers of tax treatment for real estate sales — no tax on a principal residence, tax on half a gain from selling a recreational, rental or other investment property, and full taxation for making a business of buying and selling — known colloquially as flipping.

    Lawyer James Rhodes of TaxationLawyers in Kitchener says some auditors are alleging sellers are making quick flips if the time between the registration of a condo and its sale is short. This is even though they may have bought the condo years previously, before construction started.

    “If someone signed a purchase agreement 10 years ago to buy a condo, but then sold it the day after the condo was finally registered, the CRA would say that person sold the condo as a quick flip because they only owned it one day,” he says.

    “The CRA doesn’t seem to care that a person’s circumstances might have changed over the ten years, such that they don’t want to live in the condo anymore.”

    One of Rhodes’ clients was single when he bought a condo in downtown Toronto in 2005. By 2009 he was engaged, and his fiancée wanted to be closer to her work in Guelph. So, he sold it, soon after it was registered.

    An auditor decided that the sale so soon after registration was suspicious, and so was the original choice of a two-bedroom apartment: “There is no reason to purchase a two bedroom condominium for one person,” he claimed.

    Rhodes says his client was assessed with over $100,000 of business income, resulting in a tax bill of roughly $50,000. He also faced a $25,000 penalty.

    “I estimate the cost to take this to the Tax Court (of Canada) will be around $10,000 to $15,000.”

    A married chartered accountant waited five years for a new 935-square-foot condo unit to be built at Bloor and Jarvis Streets. But she decided after living there 15 days in 2011 it was simply too cramped.

    “We would have had to turn the entire second bedroom into a closet,” she explained. “My husband would have had to watch television in the living room.”

    They changed their plans, kept their old family home, but claimed the condo as a principal residence for the time they owned it. (It is permissible to claim different homes as one’s principal residence, just not two at the same time.)

    A CRA auditor has ordered her to pay $72,000 of tax, and a $36,000 penalty, on a $150,000 price gain. She had already looked into CRA practices and wrote March 18 to ask Minister of National Revenue, Gail Shea, to order an investigation

    (From TRONTO STAR Monday, April 15, 2013 page B2. / www.thestar.com )