Real Estate Refinancing

There are no taxes associated with the refinancing of estimated real estate.

However, Sharia-compliant refinancing means that the accumulated profit becomes subject to taxation. The United Kingdom has been changing its taxation legislation for Islam financing for more than a decade. 1. Aim is to make sure that Islam financial operations are not taxed more or less severely than their traditional financial counterparts.

Legislative changes to fiscal legislation have been very gradual, as fiscal legislation is complicated and any changes will have unforeseen effects, and the possible establishment of "tax gaps" allowing operations to completely evade taxes. I have been conscious for several years of the particular need to amend British fiscal legislation in order not to penalise Sharia-compliant refinancing of valued real estate.

In my article of 1 May 2018 in the journal "Islamic Financial News. I know that every nation I know initially evolved its tax system when all finances were common. Even though Muslim banking performs the same commercial function as traditional banking, it carries out operations that are significantly different in structure from those of traditional banking.

Given that the relevant taxation regimes were designed in a traditional financial context, this means that Islam financial operations are often subject to higher taxation than comparable traditional financial operations. As an illustration, consider what happens when a person owning a business real estate has gained value and wants to take down cash with the real estate as security.

Assuming the real estate initially costed $100,000, is now $1,000,000,000 in value, and the individuals want to rent $750,000 backed up on the real estate. Traditional financing transactions are uncomplicated. An ordinary local merchant will loan the person $750,000 backed by a court fee on the premises. There was no tax gain on the disposal of the real estate as it remains in the possession of the individuals.

However, this is also the case when the right remains assigned to the beneficiary as collateral for the credit; the person remains the economic proprietor of the real estate and the taxation system of most (if not all) jurisdictions therefore ignores the assignment of the right. Since there has been no sales, there will be no real estate purchase taxes in most jurisdictions, either when the mortgages are created or when they are repaid.

There is no divestiture in most jurisdictions since there is no real estate sales, so taking out the credit does not result in part of the $900,000 built-in equity profit being subject to tax. However, the corresponding Shariah-compliant transactions are more complicated. The person and the bench will usually perform a declining Masharaka operation.

For example, the person is selling the real estate to the local banks for $750,000. It then leases the real estate back to the individuals for an annuity, which in effect is the equivalent of $750,000 in commercial interest rate. During the duration of the declining Mosharaka deal, the buyer repurchases the real estate, usually for the same amount of $750,000, usually in phases.

When individuals increase their percentage of owner-occupied real estate, the percentage of real estate for which they pay rents decreases accordingly. Accordingly, the Muslim financing operation implies that the real estate is resold twice, once by the person to the house and then from the house to the person. Those jurisdictions that levy taxes on real estate transactions will usually do so for both transactions.

In addition, the person has for $750,000 bought a real estate item that costs them $100,000, so if the country's profits from the sales of real estate are subject to taxation, the person can be expected to be subject to taxation on the profit of $650,000. The above land acquisition taxation burdens in the UK were removed by the UK's first changes to ease the burden of Muslim financing around 2003.

On the other hand, the investment income taxes resulting from the disposal will continue to apply to transactions with Muslim financial institutions, although the corresponding profit from a disposal to a sucukuk emitting SPV will not be subject to taxation. The Chartered Institute of Taxation, with the support of the Authors, has now sent a letter to the UK Revenue Service suggesting that the profit from the above -mentioned Muslim financial operation should not be subject to taxation, provided that the relevant requirements are met.