Land registration fee in Nepal (जग्गा पास खर्च): the province rates for 2083/84 and the seller’s tax

The registration fee (रजिष्ट्रेशन शुल्क) is charged when the deed (लिखत) is registered. Each province sets the rate in its finance act (प्रदेश आर्थिक ऐन) for the year. The Land Revenue Office collects it, and the money is shared. In Bagmati the municipality gets 60% and the province 40%. The municipality’s own charges are for its recommendation letters, at rates in its own finance act.

The capital gains tax (पुँजीगत लाभ कर) is federal. The Income Tax Act makes the Land Revenue Office take it from an individual seller at registration. It is charged on the seller’s profit, not on the price.

Who pays which. None of the acts we read says who pays the fee. By custom the buyer pays it, and the Civil Code assumes the same: if a sale fails, the buyer can recover the price and the registration fee they paid (section 424). The gains tax falls on the seller by law, because it is tax on the seller’s income. Either side can agree to carry the other’s cost, so put it in writing.

These are the rates for a sale (राजीनामा) in each province’s finance act for 2083/84, which runs from 1 Shrawan 2083 to the end of Asar 2084. The fee is a percentage of the deed value.

• Kathmandu is 5.3%, not 5%. Several pages quote 5% for Kathmandu, but Bagmati’s act charges the valley’s two metropolitan cities 5.3% and its municipalities 4.8%. The valley means the Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts.
• Flats can cost less. For a flat in a housing scheme, Koshi charges 4%, 3.5%, 3% and 1%, Gandaki 4%, 2% and 1%, and Lumbini 3%, 2% and 1%. Bagmati charges a flat the same as land.
• Pay through a bank. Bagmati and Koshi want proof that any sale from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh was paid through a bank. Above Rs 50 lakh they want a good-for-payment cheque, a bank guarantee, an e-payment or a deposit slip for the seller’s account. Gandaki’s and Lumbini’s rule starts at Rs 10 lakh.
• Registering from another district. You can register at a nearer office. In Bagmati that adds 10% to the fee.

Every province takes a share off the fee for some buyers. The share comes off the fee, not off the rate’s percentage points: 25% off a 5.3% fee leaves 3.975%. Only one concession is given. If you qualify on more than one ground, you get the largest.

• Bring the proof. A single woman needs proof that she is single. Disability and community concessions need the municipality’s recommendation or an official card. Remittance needs the bank’s certified record of the money received.
• Landless families pay nothing. In Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini, a landless, freed Kamaiya or freed Haliya family buying with a concessional loan pays no fee.
• Some areas get half off. Bagmati halves the fee in named villages of Rasuwa, Dolakha, Dhading and Sindhupalchok. Gandaki halves it in named rural municipalities of Manang, Mustang and Gorkha.

The Finance Act 2083 raised the tax on an individual’s gain from land and buildings. Many pages still give the old rates. The Inland Revenue Department’s booklet on the act says the rates rose from 5% and 7.5% to 7.5% and 10%. It also says the tax taken at the Land Revenue Office is now final.

• The gain is what the seller receives less what they paid for the property, including the cost of building on it (Income Tax Act, sections 37 and 38). Where there is a house, its construction cost comes from the municipality’s letter.
• A home owned and lived in for ten years is exempt. This covers an individual’s private house owned for ten years without a break and lived in for ten years in all. It includes the land under it and as much again, up to one ropani.
• A sale under Rs 10 lakh is exempt. This applies to an individual’s land or house sold for less than Rs 10 lakh.
• Family transfers that are not sales are exempt. A gift or partition within three generations carries no gains tax.
• Land given free to a government is exempt, from the Finance Act 2083.
• No return is needed. An individual whose only income that year is the gain need not file an income tax return. Someone whose income passes Rs 40 lakh must file.

The deed value or the minimum valuation, whichever is higher. The Land Administration Directive 2081 tells the office to check the deed value (थैली अङ्क) against the minimum valuation for the current year. If the deed is lower, the fee is charged on the minimum (section 117).

Who sets the minimum. A committee formed under rule 5ख of the Land Revenue Rules 2036 recommends it (Directive, section 170), and the office fixes it for each fiscal year. Ask the office for your plot’s figure before you agree a price.

A house is valued by the municipality. Where the land has a building, the office takes the house’s value from the local level’s letter (section 171).

The value cannot go down on paper. Bagmati’s and Koshi’s acts forbid registering a deed below the plot’s previous sale value. A mortgage figure does not count as a previous sale.

A certified बैना counts. Suppose the बैना under which the advance was paid was certified at a municipality and is filed with the deed. The deed value is then the बैना’s price or the minimum valuation, whichever is higher (section 303).

A plot in Bagmati sells for Rs 50 lakh in 2083/84, at or above its minimum valuation. The seller bought it for Rs 30 lakh, and that is the value in their own purchase deed. Here is the buyer’s fee in three kinds of place.

1. 1The seller’s gain: Rs 50,00,000 − Rs 30,00,000 = Rs 20,00,000.
2. 2If the seller owned it for 3 years (less than 5): 10% of Rs 20,00,000 = Rs 2,00,000.
3. 3If the seller owned it for 6 years (5 or more): 7.5% of Rs 20,00,000 = Rs 1,50,000.
4. 4Under the 2082/83 rates the same sale would have cost the seller Rs 1,50,000 and Rs 1,00,000.
5. 5In Kathmandu, the money changing hands at the office is Rs 2,65,000 from a man buying, or Rs 1,98,750 from a woman. On top of that comes the seller’s Rs 2,00,000 or Rs 1,50,000.

The Land Administration Directive 2081 lists what the office needs for a transfer (section 123):

• a joint application from the seller and the buyer;
• the original land ownership certificate (लालपुर्जा);
• the receipt for this fiscal year’s land revenue (मालपोत);
• the municipality’s recommendation showing the house and the road (घरबाटो सिफारिस), and its letter on the house’s value if there is one;
• copies of both sides’ citizenship certificates (for a minor, the birth certificate and the guardian’s citizenship);
• the capital gains tax form, where the sale is above the year’s threshold;
• the deed in two copies, or three if you register from another district;
• proof of payment through a bank.

1. 1Get the ward’s recommendations and pay this year’s land revenue.
2. 2Have the deed written. A licensed land service centre (भू-सेवा केन्द्र) can fill in the forms online, upload the papers and print the deed. Where the office runs the online land information system, the seller can also submit it there with a one-time password sent to their mobile, up to five times a year (Directive, sections 386 and 390).
3. 3At the office, hand in the deed and take a token. Tokens are given until two hours before the office closes, so go early.
4. 4The office checks the certificate against its records, looks for any freeze (रोक्का) on the plot, and checks the minimum valuation.
5. 5Pay the registration fee and the seller’s gains tax.
6. 6Seller, buyer and witnesses sign and give thumbprints before the officer (सनाखत).
7. 7If the plot is not being split, the deed is passed the same day. If it is being split (कित्ताकाट), it goes to the Survey Office first and is passed when it comes back.
8. 8The record is then changed to the buyer’s name (दाखिल खारेज), and the buyer gets the new certificate.

A family transfer within three generations costs far less than a sale. The acts list who counts: grandparents, parents, spouse, brothers and sisters, children, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces, most of them with their spouses, and parents-in-law. Outside them, a gift costs more than a sale. None of these transfers within three generations carries the gains tax.

• Partition is valued on the whole property being divided, not on one share (Directive, section 303).
• Inheritance outside three generations costs Rs 7,000 to Rs 20,000 a file in Bagmati, by value.
• Prove the relationship. Gandaki asks for a relationship certificate for a gift where the IDs do not show it.

• Using a national rate. There is none. Kathmandu is 5.3%, Bhaktapur 4.8%, Biratnagar 5%, Butwal 4.5%.
• Using last year’s gains tax. From 2083/84 it is 7.5% or 10%, not 5% or 7.5%.
• Under-declaring the price. The fee never falls below the minimum valuation. Bagmati and Koshi forbid going below the previous sale value, and a certified बैना’s price is used if it is higher.
• Missing the woman’s concession. A wife buying with her husband can put the land in joint names. In Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini that gets the woman’s rate.
• Claiming two concessions. Only the largest is given.
• Paying cash. Above Rs 5 lakh in Bagmati and Koshi, and Rs 10 lakh in Gandaki and Lumbini, the office wants proof of a bank payment.
• An old land revenue receipt. It must be for the current fiscal year.
• Expecting a split plot the same day. A deed that splits a plot waits for the Survey Office.
• A seller abroad with no proper authority. A power of attorney made abroad has to be certified at a Nepali embassy or consulate.