Selling Apartment? Certain Restrictions Apply

[John Doe]

I was told by the owner of a local real estate company that one of the stipulations required to sell an apartment in BA is that the seller must prove that they never rented out the apartment. This seems like an impossible feat. He said that an accountant would be able to handle this. How? What about the owner taking a lie dedector test? Wouldn't it be easier and more logical for the government to prove that the owner had rented out the apartment?
I'm wondering if anyone has or knows someone who has experienced this........?

 

[Ries]

not exactly.
when selling, AFIP, or whatever Macri changed their name to, will assume that a foreign owner rented out their apartment, and charge you taxes for that, subtracted from your closing.
To avoid that, you need years and years of utility bills, and be able to prove that you were in residence when the bills were showing occupancy.
Basically, its a way for them to get more taxes from you.
A good accountant will help, but, if you cannot prove continuos residency yourself, expect to make less at closing.
Argentine closing costs are, as far as I know, always more than US ones, in terms of the percentage of the sales price you will receive.

 

[Ceviche]

Please don't go, John Doe!

 

[Girino]

Hi John Doe,

this is a well known fact. Basically, if you are not a resident of Argentina you couldn't technically stay here longer than 6 months per year. If you have utility bills showing usage for 12 months a year, they assume you rented it. You could argue that Mrs. John Doe lived there the other half year, but I don't think we are talking a lot of money in taxes and a lawyer would probably cost more than taxes.

Truth is, a lot of expats homes are holiday homes that are indeed rented out when the owners are away.
But the taxes paid on this rental can compensate the ones you'd have in the US on income from rental. Ask your CPA about this.



See here: http://www.mikesbaapartments.com/buenos-aires-real-estate-consulting-on-buying-and-selling-69/ first clients' testimonial.

 

[gracielle]

Tax on the transfer of real estate property.....

Impuesto a la Transferencia de inmuebles de Personas Físicas

http://www.afip.gov.ar/genericos/impTransferenciaInmueble.asp

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

It's easy to prove, just get your utility bills from the time you were out of the country and it should be obvious that no one was living there

 

[el_expatriado]

I did this back in 2008 when I sold an apartment of my father's (who is a non-resident). They wanted to charge him taxes for renting it out. I solved the problem by updating my DNI to the address of the apartment and declaring the apartment as my primary residence. I hired an accountant to take care of the whole thing. I remember I spent less than $1000 USD on the accountant and saved thousands in taxes.

Basically you just need some way to prove that the apartment was not used to generate an income. If you can prove that to the satisfaction of the AFIP inspector, you get the certificate to sell it and pay no more in taxes than a resident.

Good luck!