A reporter for the PMOI website in Tehran has prepared a report on social reactions regarding endless taxes. According to the report, government taxes have become very burdensome and painful for the people:
“Currently, everyone buys and sells with a debit card or online. That’s why they don’t have access to cash. If they want to have cash, they have to go to the bank and receive a maximum of 2 million rials in cash (of course, with each bank card, they can separately receive 2 million rials). The government easily deducts fees from both the seller’s and the buyer’s accounts through bank cards and online transactions.
“Even street vendors and those near the subway have card readers with them.
“People are tired and unhappy with these overwhelming and taxes, low incomes, and high prices. We also have to pay taxes for buying and selling coins and gold. We can buy coins and gold with our national identification number, and it is expected that the law will be passed and implemented for dowries as well. For example, buying 15 to 100 coins incurs a 0.1% tax, from 101 to 200 coins incurs a 2% tax, and more than 201 coins incurs a 15% tax.
“According to the decision of the Judicial Commission, each couple is required to pay 50% tax to the government for registering the dowry.
“Businesses and trades are completely stagnant, and incomes have fallen below the poverty line. I had gone to the pharmacy, and a lady had come to buy powdered milk for her child. They did not give her more than two packs and required to see and register the child’s national identification number.
“This is happening in a situation where news of large-scale embezzlements is circulating in the media and astonishing the people.”
Taxing tenants
The crisis-ridden government is constantly coming up with new excuses to tax the people to cover its expenses. The imposition of taxes on gold sellers and home renters has sparked a wave of social concerns and protests.
The Iranian regime, as usual, has resorted to a series of contradictory remarks and misleading denials to prevent protests.
The goal of these remarks is to dampen social sensitivities and promote a new form of exploitative taxation.
On December 26, the state-run Eghtesad 24 news website reported, “These are taxes that now reached the threshold of citizens’ patience and tolerance.”
Eghtesad 24, while confirming the existence of property rental taxes, admits that property owners raise rents to meet the desired tax revenue of the government. Consequently, the taxes are paid out of the tenant’s pocket.
The designers of this plan probably envisioned, even back in the year 2021 that when they included this provision in the budget law, property owners would ultimately compensate for their taxes by raising rents on properties larger than 150 and 200 square meters. However, the situation has now changed entirely, and a large number of property owners are adding clauses to their rental agreements from the very beginning. According to these clauses, the tenant is responsible for paying the rental taxes, and they even collect this amount from the tenant along with the security deposit.
Some landlords do not include this matter in the written rental agreement and instead make an oral agreement with the tenant from the very beginning, collecting this amount from the tenant in the form of check or cash. In fact, some property owners collect the rental tax from the tenant before even paying it to the country’s tax authority or before the exact amount has been determined.
The examination of the budget bill shows that there is no indication about a base tax specifically applicable to tenants. But according to the regime’s media, “Home renters must also pay the equivalent of the rent for seven square meters of an apartment” in taxes next year? The government does not intend to directly collect taxes from tenants, but they are indirectly subject to various taxes.
The government has trapped tenants in a web of taxes
The government has trapped tenants in a tax maze by imposing heavy taxes on them. The tax paid by renting households in the coming year will be equivalent to the price of a 7-square-meter property. The annual income of a Tehran household in the current year, based on the current prices, is assumed to be around 2.76 billion rials. This figure has been calculated based on the previous year’s income of Tehran residents and a 20% increase in annual wages. According to official reports, the income of Tehran residents in the past year was 2.3 billion rials. Incomes exceeding 1.2 billion rials will be subject to taxation.
Given the meager income of individuals residing in Tehran and the government’s heavy tax burden on insignificant incomes, tenants – who constitute a large portion of Tehran’s residents – have come under pressure due to increasing rents and various living expenses in the capital.