MINSK, 24 September (BelTA) – A number of tax preferences are available to large families in Belarus, BelTA learned from Andrei Kovalevsky, Head of the Central Office for Taxation of Natural Persons of the Belarusian Tax and Duties Ministry, at a press conference.
According to the source, tax deductions represent one of the ways for the government to support families with many kids. The standard tax deduction for a family with one child is Br34. The tax deduction for families with three children and more stands at Br65 per child. For instance, if a parent has three kids and a salary of Br1,000, virtually Br200 of the income is exempt from the income tax. The standard tax deduction is indexed every year.
Large families also enjoy the largest discounts on the land tax and the real estate tax. They do not have to pay these taxes at all for all the buildings they own, structures, apartments, garages, and land plots. Only permanent structures or land plots, which are used for income-generating activities, represent an exception.
Inna Pinkovskaya, Head of the Housing Policy Regulation Department of the Housing Policy Office of the Belarusian Architecture and Construction Ministry, mentioned what preferences are available for large families in need of better homes. State support is granted to them without delay. They are also given permits to build homes within one year of their registration as people in need of better housing. The problem of housing for large families has been virtually solved in rural areas and small towns. “I think we will also reduce the time they wait for the permit to start building homes in large cities to one year soon,” she stated.
Belarusian families with many kids can receive either a loan with a below-market interest rate in line with presidential decree No.13 or a subsidized loan in line with presidential decree No.240. The former provides for a loan that can be repaid over the period of 40 years and has an interest rate of 1% per annum. The size of the loan is calculated bearing in mind that a person needs 20m2 of living space with the standard cost of one square meter of housing at Br817. If a family is intent on building a single-family house or a semi-detached house in a rural area, state support will be considerably larger in this case, the official pointed out.
