I purchased a real estate unit more than 20 years ago. I no longer have a copy of the contract. What should I enter into the fields for date and price of purchase?

If you are no longer able to find the contract of sale-and-purchase or other documentation, you should still fill in the year of purchase because the amount of the “deemed acquisition cost” depends on the year when the sold property had been bought. 

To fill in the year, enter it into the Acquisition date field as 1 January. For example, you can simply enter 01.01.1998 and leave the other fields blank. 

In these circumstances, the Tax Administration will make a calculation in order to assess your capital gains or capital losses based on subtracting a “deemed acquisition cost”. This means that the real purchase price, and any expenses you may have had to pay when you sold the apartment, is replaced in the calculation by the “deemed acquisition cost”. 

• If you have owned the property you are selling for a shorter time than 10 years, the deemed acquisition cost is 20% of the selling price of the apartment.
• If you have owned it for 10 years or longer, the deemed acquisition cost is 40% of the selling price.

Example: 28 years ago, Teija bought an apartment as an investment. Unfortunately, she has misplaced the contract and cannot find it anymore.
Teija sells the apartment today for €70,000.  Because precise information on purchase price is unavailable, the following calculation must be made:  
Price received for selling the apartment                        €70,000
Deemed acquisition cost    (40% × €70,000 =)             €28,000  
Teija’s capital gain
subject to tax                      €70,000 – €28,000 =          €42,000  
 
The rate of capital income tax is 30% up to €30,000 of income received. For income above that, the rate is 34%.

In this example, the resulting tax would be 30% × €30,000 + 34% × €12,000 = €9,000 + €4,080 = €13,080.