Rent with purchase option or installment sale?
You want to sell a house and, to make it easier for you, they have recommended that you offer your potential buyers a rental with a purchase option.
Do you know that formalising a sale with deferred payment may also interest you?
Rental with purchase option
Rental
You are having a hard time finding a buyer for your home, so an acquaintance has recommended that you propose to your potential buyers to formalise a rental with a purchase option.
If you act like this:
- On the one hand, it will facilitate payment to your potential buyers.
- On the other hand, if the tenant uses the house as his residence, in general you can apply a reduction in your personal income tax of 50% of the net rental income (to be declared in the general base).
If you sell a good with purchase option, you must put in the deed the price set in the lease with purchase option.
Sale
If once the rental contract is over, the tenant buys the house, the rents that he has paid will be considered in their entirety as payments on account of the price of the house (despite having enjoyed a 50% reduction), and will reduce the amount of the gain that you must declare on the basis of the savings of your personal income tax.
Of course: remember that, when selling a property that has been leased, the acquisition value to be taken into account to calculate the profit must be reduced in the amount of amortisation.
If the tenant executes the purchase option and deducts from what he pays. what he has already paid in the rent, in the capital gain of the sale, the rent will also reduce the sale price.
But what was deducted in amortisation in the rental period, will have to be added to the sale price.
Let’s give an example so that there is no doubt
Example of sale of a house with rent with option to buy and reduction of the rent already paid.
You signed a 3-year rental contract with a tenant who pays you €1,000 per month of rent. And it establishes a sale price of €100,000 and a purchase option of €10,000.
The house cost him €40,000
And amortises 1,000 per year in rent
Taxation on income
The first year you will have to be taxed in income for rent (reducing the income to 50%, 70% or 90% in your case).
And the purchase option of €10,000 is taxed by capital gain.
In the sale, the sale price will be €100,000 and you will be paid €64,000.
3 x 12 x 1,000 = €36,000
€100,000 – €36,000 = €64,000
The capital gain will be
€90,000 (1) – €40,000 – €36,000 + €3,000 = €17,000
(1) remember, you have already paid taxes for the €10,000 purchase option in the first year.
Sale with deferred payment
Sale with resolutive condition
Well, before resorting to rental with purchase option, check if you may be more interested in opting for another alternative that also facilitates the acquisition to potential buyers: the sale with deferred payment.
To avoid risks, demand a guarantee of payment from the buyer (for example, a guarantee).
You can also formalise a resolution condition before a notary, so that in case of non-payment you can terminate the contract and recover the transferred good – along with compensation for non-compliance.
Sale with deferred collection
If you sell the house and collect in a deferred manner, so that between the date of delivery and that of the last collection more than a year elapses, you can declare the gain on the basis of the savings of your personal income tax as you collect and in proportion to the amounts received.
If you sell with deferred collection, you can distribute the capital gain for several years.
In addition, after the sale you will no longer bear housing expenses (community, IBI…).
That is, for the same charges as the rental with purchase option, this option will mean less costs.
Comparison of taxation between rent with purchase option and deferred sale
Example
You, who tax at a marginal rate in your personal income tax of 45%, are going to transfer a home for 250,000 euros (you acquired it for 150,000).
See the differences according to the chosen alternative:
- Option 1. He rents it with a purchase option for ten years with an income of 12,000 euros per year and, at the end of that period, the acquirer must satisfy 130,000 euros. The rental expenses are 5,000 euros per year, of which 2,600 are amortisation.
- Option 2 . Make a deferred sale with ten annual payments of 12,000 euros and a final payment of 130,000.
| Concept | Option 1 | Option 2 | ||
| Years 1-9 | Year 10 | Years 1-9 | Year 10 | |
| Annual profit | – | 6.000 (1) | 4.800 (2) | 56.800 (3) |
| Annual rental income | 7.000 | 7.000 | – | – |
| Annual personal income tax | 1.575 (4) | 2.715 | 912 | 11.944 |
| Total personal income tax fee | 16.890 (5) | 20.152 | ||
| Rental costs | 2,400 x 10 years (6) | – | ||
| Total cost | 40.890 | 20.152 | ||
(1) Sale price – rental charges – (acquisition value – amortisation): 250,000 – 120,000 – (150,000 – 2,600 x 10).
(2) For each annual payment, the part of the profit that is proportional must be imputed to the personal income tax: (250,000 – 150,000) x 12,000 /250,000.
(3) (250,000 – 150,000) x (130,000 +12,000) /250,000.
(4) (7,000 – 50% reduction) x IRPF rate of 45%.
(5) If you were taxed at a rate below 45%, the difference in taxation with option 2 would be greater. Thus, if it were taxed at a marginal rate of 30%, for example, this fee would be 13,215 euros.
(6) Amortisation is not taken into account because it does not involve disbursements.
In conclusion
If you formalise a sale in installments instead of a rental with purchase option, you will have the advantage that, having already transferred the house, you will not have to bear costs derived from its possession, so your total costs may be lower.
