Page 27 - IRANRptMar21

Iran’s president pushes for passing of double taxation prevention deal with India
Lawmakers want a fee to be charged on empty homes to encourage owners and property speculators to at least rent them out. In Tehran alone, entire blocks are unpopulated, with owners often choosing to leave new apartments empty as a selling point, hoping to earn more money from an unused flat rather than a used one.
As part of the legislative amendment, empty homes in towns and cities with a population of over 100,000 will be taxed after four months based on their assessed monthly rental income tax.
As further leverage to prompt market change, owners of empty properties will be charged six times more than the standard rental price in the first year if the property is not rented or sold.
If the property is not offloaded by year two, the owner will be charged 12 times the average rental cost, and the chare moves up 18 to times the rental income in the third year.
The rules also stipulate that builders have 12 months from the point the municipality signs off the building as constructed to sell their property without the added tax.
The government’s new national homes database will be the basis of the system, with all homes required to be registered with one owner from the same family.
The system has also been designed in a way that should prevent families offloading properties to spouses or siblings. The new rules do not seem to target localities on the Persian Gulf, such as Kish Island, or the Caspian Sea resorts in Iran which are strewn with second homes and seaside villas.
Iran’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance is working on pushing forward legislation on avoiding double taxation with India at the request of President Hassan Rouhani, according to Mehr News.
Iran has so far never signed a double taxation deal with another country. Imports from India of staples including rice and efforts to overcome importers’ tax evasion would be boosted were such an agreement to be ratified.
The agreement would stimulate investment, technology and personnel flows from Iran to India and vice versa, as well as prevent double taxation, Rouhani said.
Iran's parliament approved a draft of the agreement in July and the same month India approved a first version of the deal.
A spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s economic commission, Mehdi Toghyani, said at the time: “If a businessman is supposed to pay taxes in one country, they should not pay taxes in other countries so as not to suffer added costs.”
India and Iran have continued to push ahead with plans to integrate their economies despite pressure from the US on New Delhi not to do so.
The Indian ambassador to Tehran said in late July that the US cannot dictate to New Delhi​ w​ hen it comes to India’s activities ​founded on the long-term leasehold it has on part of Iran’s sole oceanic port, Chabahar.
27​ IRAN Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com