Transactions between wife and husband. This is how you optimize taxes
The interpretation concerned the spouses who received real estate from their parents before the wedding. The woman got a plot and a man's house. The plot was therefore her personal property, and the house – his personal property. The couple got married in 2021. The woman decided to sell the plot, but because five years have passed since she was received, she would have to pay income tax. However, she found a way to avoid tax, which was confirmed by the tax authorities in the interpretation.
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How did the spouses come up with the tax exemption?
The woman in the application for interpretation explained that She would like to sell the plot and buy … a house from her husband for the money obtained. In this way, she would allocate money from the sale of the plot for his own housing purposes, and this is the condition of the so -called Housing relief in PIT, i.e. exemption from real estate sales tax.
The director of the national individual interpretation has twice asked the taxpayer for her situation.
She explained that she had statutory joint property with her husband. He lives with him in his parents' family home, where she has been registered from birth. It has no other house or apartment, and the only property that the plot is obtained in the donation is. The husband does not live in a house that his wife is to buy, because currently a husband's grandmother, who has a notarial, guaranteed lifetime the right to live in him. The husband is registered in a building other than the one that his wife intends to buy from him. This house is therefore not a common place to live in the spouses. The woman added that the purchase of real estate from her husband, instead of extending the joint property (for this house owned by her husband), results from the need to have her own personal property. The woman also explained that after buying a house from her husband, she intends to move to him with her family (with her husband and children). The purpose of the purchase is therefore to provide the family with an independent place to live and achieve their own housing.
In the second explanation, which the tax authorities turned about, the woman indicated that the plot he wants to sell is currently during the division. Part of the plot is intended for the planned construction of the beltway, which means that the sale is blocked, but the rest of the woman wants to sell. The taxpayer added that the money from the transaction will spend entirely on the purchase of a house in three years from the end of the calendar year in which the plot will be sold.
The woman thought that if she sells the plot and allocated the money to buy a house from her husband, she would not have to pay income tax, because sales income would be exempt from tax pursuant to art. 21 para. 1 point 131 of the PIT Act (housing relief). The taxpayer took the position that the PIT Act does not exclude the possibility of using the exemption when the purchase is from the spouse, and only the actual purpose of the property for housing is important.
Does the purchase of a house from her husband enter the housing relief? This is how the tax office assessed it
Director of the National Treasury Information in an individual interpretation of May 13, 2025 (reference number 0113-KDIPT2-2.4011.197.2025.3.KK) He confirmed that a woman would benefit from tax exemption (housing concession) if she buys her husband's house for money from the sale of the plot.
The authority first explained what results from the provisions. In the case of the sale of real estate, the basis for calculating tax is income, i.e. the difference between income from a paid sale and tax deductible costs. Income is taxable 19 percent Pit. Income, however, may be exempt from tax if the conditions indicated in art. 21 para. 1 point 131 of the PIT Act. In short: the income from the sale of real estate is exempt from PIT if the taxpayer spends money from sales for his own housing purposes and does it not later than within three years from the end of the tax year in which the sale was paid.
If the taxpayer issues some of the money obtained from sales for his own housing purposes, only this part is exempt from tax. Housing goals were listed in art. 21 para. 25 of the PIT Act. The taxpayer must show that the expenditure was incurred to achieve his own housing purposes.
“The subjective declarations of taxpayers on the purchase of real estate in order to meet their own housing needs are not sufficient to obtain a tax exemption. Therefore, it is not enough to make housing expenses, but It is necessary for this to take place simultaneously to meet your own housing needs ” – emphasized the director of KIS.
He added that the tax authorities have the right to assess the motives for purchasing residential real estate and subsequent decisions as to the further fate of these properties. Such verification is made by comparing objective facts related to the purchase and subsequent use of the property to the declared motives of the taxpayer's operation. At the same time, these motives must be confirmed by objective facts.
Referring directly to the situation of the taxpayer who wants to sell the plot and buy a house from her husband, the authority explained that she would be able to benefit from tax exemption.
Individual interpretation of the Director of the National Treasury Information in the interpretation of May 13, 2025 (reference number 0113-KDIPT2-2.4011.197.2025.3.KK).
