How to sell land on SE to avoid taxes

The management of SIF Transilvania, which controls the producer of metallurgic equipment Independenta Sibiu, intends to break up the company, which will involve the listing of the two new companies including valuable assets, with the company aiming to sell the stakes on the Stock Exchange. The purpose of this operation is to avoid the extremely high taxes levied in the case of direct real estate transactions. “We made this decision for a fiscal reason, because a direct asset sale transaction entails paying 16% tax for the sale contract, and then revenues derived from these transactions will be part of the company’s profit, which will be levied a 16% tax in turn, and then we will have to offer our shareholders dividends from the profit, which are taxed by 16% as well,” said Florian Firu, deputy manager of SIF Transilvania. He added that by listing the companies and by transferring the stake, they would only pay a 16% tax on gains derived from the Stock Exchange, or only a 1% tax if deciding to wait a year.