Rental Tax For Those Living Abroad?

[Farenheit]

I seem to recally reading about this some years ago on this forum but the archive search proved fruitless....
If you own a property and move abroad for a large proportion of the year, when you go to sell the property will AFIP assume you were renting out if your bills remain the same, and charge you tax based on the supposed ganancias? Or is it possible to say a friend was staying there to keep an eye on the place?

Would be grateful for any info about this, and the tax percentages involved.

 

[solerboy]

It is not possible to say a friend has been staying there, they will assume the friend was paying. They won't listen to reasoning, they'v heard all the excuses before ! I went through this process last year, even though the property has been rented and I was declaring all the income it was still a long painfull exercise.


The tax is 35% on net rent (rent minus expenses) or 21% of the turnover. Its easier to do the 21% calculation as you dont need to keep detailed accounts of expenditure.

Also payable is the asset tax (bienes personales) not directly related to renting, but this and your ABL will need to be paid up to date before the sale is approved.

Interest is charged on late payments at 3% compound per month, this is often more than the original tax due, if it goes back a number of years. There are also fines, we were fined 2000 pesos for late delarations (which also had interest added !)

 

[PhilipDT]

How do the calculate assumed rent?

 

[solerboy]

I dont know how they calculate the rent. I suspect they would ask you to get three estimates from reputable estate agents and work out the average. (They did a simular thing the assess the valuation of a property)

 

[Farenheit]

Thanks for the info. So what do you do if you can't rent your place out and need to move abroad? It's a hefty tax to pay when there's no income from renting.

 

[El chabon]

Dont rent out place then

 

[citygirl]

If there is no one living there, then your utility bills should be more or less non-existent and cancel all non-essential utilities (phone/cable/etc). That should serve as evidence that the place was empty and no rental income was being derived from it.

 

[Farenheit]

Citygirl, it's a large house and I can't leave it empty or I'll have squatters. I will have a couple living there, but they won't be paying me any rent or bills as in they will be looking after the place.

 

[citygirl]

Ah unfortunately I think you are SOL then. AFIP won't accept "friends watching the house" and will just assume they are renters. I don't know there will be any way around it. Maybe work out a deal with the couple that as they're not paying rent, they pay that tax. Seems like it would probably still be a good deal for them.

 

[Farenheit]

Apparently if you have a DNI and permanent residency, you can live abroad up to 180 consecutive days without AFIP considering that you are renting out your property in Argentina. 2 real estate sources have told me this. I am not sure if you can do this more than once a year, I will try to find out....