Tax on selling securities
Tax on the gain, the three-year relief and a tax-free account
Gain on the sale
800 000,00 ₽
full years held: 3
Exempt from tax
800 000,00 ₽
relief ceiling 9 000 000,00 ₽
Tax due
0,00 ₽
effective rate 0%
Left in hand
2 000 000,00 ₽
the relief saved 104 000,00 ₽
The same sale charged three ways
| Metric | No reliefsold before the term | Three-year relief3m ₽ for each yearCheapest | Tax-free accountthe gain on it is exempt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exempt | 0,00 ₽ | 800 000,00 ₽ | 800 000,00 ₽ |
| Taxable base | 800 000,00 ₽ | 0,00 ₽ | 0,00 ₽ |
| Tax | 104 000,00 ₽ | 0,00 ₽ | 0,00 ₽ |
| Left in hand | 1 896 000,00 ₽ | 2 000 000,00 ₽ | 2 000 000,00 ₽ |
A column this holding does not earn is shown faint: it is "what it would have been", not something to claim today.
The figures cover one sale: losses from earlier years are not carried in, and commissions count only as far as you put them into the cost. Tax-free accounts of this type were opened before 2024 — the ИИС-3 contracts that replaced them have their own term and their own ceiling on the exempt gain, and closing an ИИС типа А early means repaying the deductions already taken. The long-term holding relief does not apply to papers held on such an account.
Reference block: the method, a worked example and answers to common questions. It does not affect the calculation above.
How it is calculated
- What is taxed is the gain, not the proceeds: gain = sale proceeds - purchase cost. The cost is what you paid for the papers together with the broker and exchange commissions — the calculator takes them at whatever you put into the "Purchase cost" field. Sell for less than you paid and there is no tax at all: a loss is not charged.
- A gain from a sale falls into the same «other income» base as deposit interest, dividends and coupons. The scale has two steps: 13% on a year of that income up to 2 400 000 rub and 15% above it. The base is a calendar-year figure and resets with the year, so two large sales in one year are charged together, while the same two split across years each start from the bottom step.
- The long-term holding relief (art. 219.1 of the Tax Code) exempts the gain once the papers have been held for three full years. Its ceiling is not fixed but grows with the term: deduction = 3 000 000 rub * full years held. Three years shelter 9 000 000 rub of profit, five years shelter 15 000 000 rub. Only what stands above the ceiling is taxed. Sell a day before the third year and there is no relief at all — nothing in between exists here.
- A tax-free investment account (ИИС типа Б) works differently: it exempts the gain on the account outright, with no ceiling, but only if the account has run its minimum term. Close it early and the exemption is gone, leaving the ordinary charge; the long-term relief does not apply to papers held on such an account. That is why the calculator always computes three scenarios at once — no relief, the three-year relief and the tax-free account — and shows what waiting is worth. The terms and the sums come from the reference book the backend serves; without it the app falls back to its own copy of the same figures.
Worked example
A sale of 2 000 000 rub of papers bought for 1 200 000 rub, after three full years. The gain is 800 000 rub. The three-year ceiling of 9 000 000 rub covers all of it, so the tax is zero and the whole 2 000 000 rub reaches the account. The same sale a day before the third year would have cost 104 000 rub of tax — that is the price of impatience.
A large sale: 30 000 000 rub of papers bought for 10 000 000 rub, after three years. The gain is 20 000 000 rub, the relief exempts 9 000 000 rub and the taxable base is 11 000 000 rub. The tax is 2 400 000 * 13% = 312 000 rub plus 8 600 000 * 15% = 1 290 000 rub, or 1 602 000 rub in total. With no relief it would have been 2 952 000 rub, so three years of holding saved 1 350 000 rub.
Frequently asked questions
Is "three years" calendar years or days?
Three continuous years of holding, not three calendar years. What counts is the stretch from purchase to sale; the calculator asks for the number of full years. A fractional remainder adds nothing: two years and eleven months give zero, three years and one month give the same 9 000 000 rub as exactly three.
Which papers does the relief cover?
Exchange-traded securities and units of open-ended Russian funds. Currency, precious metals and papers bought and sold inside a tax-free account are outside it — the account has a relief of its own. Check a particular paper with your broker: this page does the arithmetic, it does not qualify the instrument.
Who pays the tax — me or the broker?
A Russian broker is the withholding agent and takes the tax itself, usually on a withdrawal or at the end of the year. It applies the long-term relief on your request, so the relief has to be asked for rather than waited for. Trades through a foreign broker are declared by the investor.
What happens to a loss?
A loss on exchange-traded papers reduces the gain on the same kind of papers in the same year, and what is left can be carried forward for ten years through a tax return. This calculator covers a single sale and does not model the carry-forward: it shows the loss as a loss and charges nothing on it.
How does ИИС типа Б differ from ИИС-3?
Accounts of type Б were opened before 2024: they exempt the whole gain on the account when it is closed no earlier than the minimum term. New contracts are ИИС-3, with a longer term of their own and a ceiling on the exempt gain from selling papers. The calculator computes the type-Б scenario; on an ИИС-3, read it against the "no relief" column and keep your own ceiling in mind.
Why is the effective rate below 13%?
Because it is measured against the whole gain while the tax is charged only on the base left after the deduction. If 9 000 000 rub of a 20 000 000 rub gain are exempt, the rate against the gain lands near 8% even though the charge itself ran at the ordinary 13% and 15%. It is a convenient way to see what the sale really costs.
Sell now or wait for the relief?
Compare the columns: the gap between "No relief" and "Three-year relief" is the price of waiting, in rubles. But the relief does not cancel market risk — over the remaining months the price can fall by more than the tax saved. Treat the tax as one argument, not the only one.