What is Gst & Impact on Real Estate.
The existing tax liabilities of homebuyers will remain largely unaffected after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. The GST Council has brought the real estate sector under the GST ambit partially through works contracts. These will be taxed at 12 per cent under the GST regime. Currently, a homebuyer has to pay several indirect taxes, including excise duty, value-added tax and service tax, which amounts to a tax outgo of about 11 per cent, excluding stamp duty.
Under the new regime, all the other indirect taxes will be subsumed and a buyer will have to pay a uniform 12 per cent tax on the purchase of real estate, except stamp duty. This is true for under construction properties but not on completed, ready-to-move-in apartments. On the other hand, entire input credit — excise duty and Central sales tax on construction materials that are paid by developers — will also be allowed unlike earlier.
Meanwhile, the government has told developers to pass on any benefits that they may avail under the new tax regime to the homebuyers. “The builders are expected to pass on the benefits of lower tax burden under the GST regime to the buyers of property by way of reduced prices/installments ... It is advised to all builders/construction companies that in the flats under construction, they should not ask customers to pay a higher tax rate on installments to be received after imposition of GST,” a government statement said.
There have been reports of developers asking buyers to make full or large payments before the new regime comes into force on July 1, saying GST would make properties costlier.
GST In India
The Rajya Sabha had on August 3 and the Lok Sabha on August 8 unanimously approved the Bill to enable the rollout of GST, arguably the biggest tax reform in India in recent times. The approvals have paved the way for implementing the indirect tax regime within the Union government's revised deadline of April 1, 2017.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on November 3 set the rates for the new tax regime. These rates would range from 5 to 28 percent, with 12 percent and 18 percent as standard rates. While things of mass consumption would be taxed at the rate of five per cent, luxury would be taxed at 28 percent.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on August 3 tabled the Goods & Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, and initiated a five-hour debate on the landmark tax reform. The proposed indirect tax regime, which is likely to subsume 17 indirect taxes upon implementation, will remove the disparity in the taxation structure across the country and bring one uniform tax rate.
How Will GST Impact Real Estate?
The real estate sector is estimated to account for about five per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and is considered the second-largest employer in the country, according to an E&Y report from 2015.
However, the sector faces issues in terms of macroeconomic conditions and fiscal policy decisions. One such challenge is the management of the multiple indirect tax levies, such as VAT, service tax, excise, stamp duty and registration fees.
As we prepare for GST 'how it works' might already be on your mind. Since the GST is to subsume multiple indirect taxes, it will simplify tax compliance and minimize the scope for double taxation. So, there is clear reason for home buyers to cheer, even if they have to pay slightly more in case the standard GST rate is high.
On how GST will impact the real estate sector, Ankur Dhawan, the chief business officer (resale), PropTiger, says: "GST itself is expected to add about 2 percent to India's gross domestic product (GDP). That is a substantial boost to the economy. If the economy does well, obviously, there will be more demand for real estate, and it will be a boost for the sector."
Why A Slightly Higher GST Rate Might Be Acceptable To Buyers
Since buyers are not liable to pay any indirect tax for the purchase of ready-to-move-in properties, the impact of GST on buyers of resale properties is likely to be very little. In the case of under-construction property transactions, buyers have to pay value-added tax (VAT) and service tax. While VAT is a state levy and its rate differs from one state to another, service tax is a central tax charged at 15 per cent. Overall, the current taxes on home purchase are not low and involve mind-boggling complexities.
Most buyers of under-construction properties take home loans to fund their purchase and the whole mathematics involved in the home loan process is quite baffling, too. In most cases, buyers do not carry out a detailed study of the various taxes that they have to additionally pay and they make their investment plans based only on the value of the property.
What's In Store For Real Estate Sector
In the case of VAT, for example, there is little clarity on what amount is paid at which level, and what part of it is passed on by the developer to the buyer. Often, for want of more clarity on the VAT rate in his state – if at all the state is imposing VAT on real estate – a buyer has to rely on the clauses mentioned in his sale agreement with the developer.
Unfortunately, no amount of research helps the buyer know the right rate? Lengthy government documents are mostly interpretative in nature and if you are not a professional chartered accountant, you might get lost in the study, and yet get little success. On the other hand, if there is a clear uniform rate for one tax that includes everything that they need to pay in taxes to authorities, the whole payment process would become very convenient for the buyer. In such a case, even a higher rate would be more acceptable to him than a lack of clarity.
Why Will Developers Love GST?
Since the GST is actually expected to bring down the project cost for developers, this would mean homes would, in fact, become cheaper.
There are many taxes and duties that a developer pays on the procurement side, such as Customs duty, Central Sales Tax, excise duty, entry tax, etc. These are subsequently passed on to the final pricing of the units and, thereby, to the buyer. As GST proposes to roll multiple taxes into one, the cost of construction will come down. This will bring more liquidity into the market and boost home sales. Free flow of credit for developers will also translate into an increase in margin in their hands.
"There are a lot of products developers procure for the construction of their projects on which there is double taxation at present. The cost they bear for these come to 20 to 25per cent of the cost of materials they are buying. So, with the GST rate, between 12% and 18%, it will reduce the cost of production for developers. This will be good for buyers, as developers will be able to pass a part of the benefit to them," Dhawan adds.
For developers, the actual tax effect will be lower than the existing one mainly due to the input tax credit on raw materials that builders get against payment of taxes on inputs like steel and cement.
Moreover, the increase in tax is very less for major inputs. The indirect taxes on steel were around 17 per cent and that has now come to 18 per cent under GST, similarly for cement the taxes totalled to nearly 24 per cent which now has been standardised at 28 per cent. The GST rate for work contracts has also been fixed at 12 per cent.
"There is no doubt that GST will be a game-changer for Indian industry, including for the real estate sector, since it will subsume more than 16 major taxes and levies into a single consolidated tax. Additionally, the unified tax regime will stop the unwanted practice of double taxation, which hurt real estate and other sectors, given their cascading effect that inflated prices for end users. Though unorganised players are wary of GST’s impact, it will create a level playing field for organised entities; the former will now come within the tax ambit. With GST enforcing transparent transactions across all domains, this will be a blessing in disguise for Real estate developers too," says Aman Agarwal, director, KV Developers, and a member of the Naredco governing council.
Through market mechanism, GST will impart more transparency to the sector, which faces a perception issue. GST would provide an audit trail for better control and monitoring of the sector.
GST Positive Towards Real Estate Sector
GST may bring a lot of relief to the real estate sector. Supply chain mechanism in real estate sector to be revamped after implementation of GST.
Real estate sector is one of the most pivotal sector of the Indian economy. Real estate sector plays a vital role in employment generation in India. It ranks second just behind agriculture.The importance of Real estate sector can be understood with its average 5-6% GDP contribution and stimulating demand for more than 250 ancillary industries.
The real estate sector had a substantial growth of 22% in its private equity investments from 2015 to 2016. At the time of the third quarter of 2016, there was a 9% increase in investment for residential properties from the previous quarter
GST Regime For Real Estate
GST would bring a lot of transparency in the real estate sector and minimize unscrupulous transactions. Under the current tax laws, VAT and Service tax charged by different Contractors and excise duty, entry tax, octroi is paid on the procurements. GST law will increase the margin in the hands of contractor/developer by removing all the above-mentioned taxes.Now whether this benefit gets passed on to the end-consumer is unsure as pricing of real estate is driven by market forces than on cost principles.
Real estate sector enjoys a lot of benefits from facilities in SEZ and same are expected to be carried forward in GST.GST will help in filling the overwhelming gaps currently existing under the supply chain management process.
There will be many projects of developers which would require the transition from current tax laws onto GST. GST model law did not specify any provisions for the transition.
GST rate on Real Estate
Currently, the sale of land and buildings have been kept out of the ambit of GST but it is expected to be taxed within a period of a year. Construction of land and building will benefit from the rates declared for cement, bricks, and iron under GST.
Cement will be taxed at the rate of 28% under GST. It is higher the current average rate of tax around 23-24% but a lot of additional taxes charged over the average rate would be subsumed under GST. Iron rods and pillars used in the construction of buildings is charged at the rate of 18% which is similar to the current average rate of 19.5%.
Bricks used in the construction of buildings and houses is taxed under GST at the rate of 28% except for the rate of ceramic building bricks which is kept under 5%. Currently, all bricks except the ceramic bricks are charged an average tax rate of 25-26% inclusive of all state and central level taxes. Logistics cost of transportation of bricks, cement or iron is going to reduce through the subsuming and streamlining of taxes.
In Real estate sector, there is a huge percentage of each project expenditure goes unrecorded on the books currently. GST will cut down this percentage due to cloud storing of invoicing. Real estate sector will also benefit with new tax law having a positive effect on all ancillary industries.
CONCLUSION
The impact of GST on real estate sector is expected to be neutral under GST. Though still, there is going to be a substantial benefit from GST as it will bring a lot of required transparency and accountability. Developers/Contractors would reap the benefit of many taxes which will be subsumed by GST.
“Real estate sector should be happy with GST even if the rate declared is higher than current rate”
The switchover to the GST regime is undoubtedly one of the biggest tax reforms in post-independence India. From July 1 2017, GST effectively cuts through a confounding Gordian knot of taxation complexity in the country. In other words, it replaces the multiple taxes levied by the central and state governments and will become subsumed of all the indirect taxes, including central excise duty, commercial tax, octroi tax/charges, Value-Added Tax (VAT) and service tax.
GST has been predominantly conceptualized around a 'One Nation, One Tax' philosophy and will:
- Help eliminate the previous cascading tax structure
- Ease compliances
- Create uniform tax rates and structure, and
- Help in reducing additional tax burdens on consumers.
However, the biggest game changer in GST is the introduction of Input Tax Credit, whereby credits of input taxes paid at each stage of production or service delivery can be availed in the succeeding stages of value addition. This makes GST fundamentally a tax only on value addition at each stage.
This means that the end consumer will thus only bear the GST charged by the last dealer in the supply chain, with set-off benefits at all the earlier stages. To ensure that manufacturers, developers and service providers pass on the benefit to the final customer, the Government has included an anti-profiteering clause in the GST bill under section 171 of GST law. This clause clearly states that it is mandatory to pass on the benefit tax reduction due to input tax credit to the final customer.
Impact on Residential Real Estate:
To say the least, the Indian real estate sector has been going through significant transform in the recent times. The recently implemented Real Estate and Regulation Act (RERA) has already started addressing the issue of non-transparency and affixes a level of accountability on real estate builders and brokers which is unprecedented in the history of the Indian property sector.
For the residential real estate sector, the implementation of GST will definitely be a positive sentiment booster among property buyers. GST may not be instrumental in bringing down the prices of residential real estate over the short term. However, it will benefit all the stakeholders of the residential real estate sector, as the perception of the sector will improve on the back of a simplified tax structure and accountability being fixed at every stage.
Benefit to Property Buyers:
A simple and transparent tax applied on the purchase price is the biggest take- away for property buyers. Under the GST regime, all under-construction properties will be charged at 12% (excluding stamp duty and registration charges). It will not apply to completed and ready-to-move-in projects, as there are no indirect taxes applicable in the sale of such properties.
VAT (with rates differing from one state to another) and Service Tax together accounted for 7-9% of the ticket price for a residential property, which is 3-4% lower than the GST rate. However, due to information asymmetry, consumers were largely unaware of how VAT and service tax are calculated - definitely, the entire tax calculation was too complex for laypeople to understand.
Any real estate product comprises of three expense components, namely land, material and labour or service costs. VAT is calculated on material cost, and service tax is calculated on labour and service cost. It is very difficult for buyers to ascertain what components were included for calculation of VAT and service tax.
The implementation of GST makes the calculation much simpler, since the buyer has to pay only a single Goods and Services Tax. Also, the builder must pass on the benefit of the price reduction he enjoys due to input tax credit to the buyer.
Impact on Affordable Housing:
The affordable housing sector, which is a major thrust area of the incumbent Government and is the cornerstone of its 'Housing for all by 2022' vision, will not be impacted by GST. This has been clarified by the announcement from the Finance Ministry, which indicates that there will be no tax under GST for housing projects which comes under the affordable housing scheme.
Benefit to Developers:
In the previous tax regime, real estate developers also grappled with the challenge of multiple taxation. On various construction materials they purchased, builder paid customs duty, central sales tax, excise duty, entry tax, etc., thus creating various instances of multiple taxation. The cumulative burden eventually got passed on to the buyer.
GST will eliminate all the other taxes, and the benefit of being able to claim input tax credit can also improve developers' profit margins.
Major construction materials have not seen a major change in tax rate.
- Cement will be taxed at the rate of 28% under GST, which is higher the current average rate of tax around 20-24%
- Iron rods and pillars will be charged at the rate of 18%, which is similar to the average rate of 20% under the old taxation regime
- Paint, wall fittings, plaster, wallpaper and ceramic tiles will be taxed at 28%, which is also similar to the previous average rate of 20-25%
- Sand lime bricks and fly ash bricks will be taxed at 5%, which is lower than the previous rate of 6%.
However, the marginal change in the percentage of these variables will make a huge difference as transportation and logistics costs reduce in the single taxation system. While there might be marginal impact on the real estate sector in the near term, we are definitely looking at a significant improvement in buyer sentiment and perception of this sector. Developers too will find the GST regime much simpler to work with, with the benefit of input tax credit being an added advantage.
