Kosice Gold Treasure - a set of 2920 gold coins, three gold medals and a gold Renaissance chain, found during excavations of the foundations of the financial office at 68 Main Street in Kosice in 1935. The unique collection of the 15th-17th centuries has been preserved intact and is one of the largest discovered treasures in the world.

Suppose you are one of the lucky ones who managed to find the treasure. What to do with unexpected wealth? How to comply with the legal procedure for transferring the treasure to the state and receive your due interest? In what cases can you keep a find? Let's look at these and other questions in order.

What is a treasure?

Article 233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation gives us a clear definition of this term. Treasure is “money or valuable objects buried in the ground or otherwise hidden, the owner of which cannot be identified or, by virtue of the law, has lost the right to it.”

What to do when a treasure is discovered?

In such a situation, you should act without fuss, nerves and emotions. All the steps you need to take can be described step by step:

• Take a few photos of the treasures you find. Preferably from different angles and at different stages of extraction.
• Contact the nearest police station and give them all the items found according to the inventory.
• Law enforcement officials are required to provide you with the appropriate report on the discovery of the treasure. It is important to understand that this document has legal force only if there are at least three witnesses who are ready to confirm that it was you who discovered the treasure.
• Report the find to the nearest museum and call its employees to the excavation site.

What is the remuneration amount?

According to Article 233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, all things of historical value are required to be transferred to the state. In this case, the owner of the land plot or other property where the treasure was discovered, or the person who found the treasure, can count on a reward of 50% of the value of the treasure. If the owner of the site and the finder are different persons, then the reward is divided in half between them, unless otherwise agreed upon. If the finder of the treasure carried out excavations without the owner’s permission, then he has no right to claim a reward and the entire amount of the latter goes to the owner.

Who pays the remuneration?

As a rule. The regional or federal budget is responsible for paying remuneration. It all depends on where the found items were sent. At the same time, objects of historical value are transferred to museums, and precious stones, metals and other products are sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to

Money, as a rule, is paid either by the regional or federal budget, depending on where the discovered values ​​were sent.

Found items that are valuable to the state are subject to transfer to the museum, and precious metals, stones and products made from them are sent by the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the State Institution for the formation of the State Fund of Precious Metals and Precious Stones of the Russian Federation, storage, release and use of precious metals and precious stones (Gokhran of Russia) under the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

Is the reward for treasure taxable?

According to Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, remuneration for the transfer to state ownership is not subject to tax. If the treasure found has no historical value and becomes your property, then you are required to pay personal income tax.

What criminal liability is provided in case of concealment of treasure?

The current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not provide for criminal punishment in case of concealing the treasure you found. Today, Russian legislation only places emphasis on the mandatory transfer of treasure to the state if it is of historical value. If a person does not hand over the treasure in such a situation, then it may be confiscated in court. Remuneration is paid only upon voluntary surrender.

The Vulchitran treasure (Bulgarian: Vulchitran gold treasure) was found in 1924 by two brothers Todor and Nikola Tsvetanov on December 28, 1924 in the Dolgite Lozya tract, not far from the village of Vulchitran (or Vulchitryn) 22 km southeast of Pleven in Bulgaria.

If you are lucky enough to find a treasure on a plot of land that belongs to you, then you must hand it over to the state and receive a reward for handing over the discovered values. However, under certain conditions you can keep the find for yourself.

What is considered treasure?

According to Art. 233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, treasure is considered to be money or valuable objects buried in the ground or otherwise hidden, the owner of which cannot be identified or, by force of law, has lost the right to them.

What should you do if a treasure is discovered?

If a treasure is discovered, you must perform the following actions:

1. Take a photo of the treasure.
2. Contact the police or prosecutor's office, handing over the items according to the inventory.
3. Receive a treasure discovery report from law enforcement officials. For a document to have legal force, you need at least three witnesses who will confirm that it was you who found the treasure.
4. Contact a museum - local or local history. Its employees will come to the excavation site and take the treasure for examination.

How much remuneration can you expect?

According to the law of the Russian Federation, if you find a treasure and it is of historical value, it should be handed over to the state. In this case, the owner of the land plot or other property where the treasure was hidden, and the person who discovered the treasure, have the right to receive a reward in the amount of fifty percent of the value of the treasure. The reward is distributed among these persons in equal shares - 25% of the amount of the treasure to the finder, the remaining 25% to the owner of the land. If you manage to find valuable things on your plot of land, then you become the owner of the treasure found, and you are entitled to 50%, not 25% of the reward.

If you carried out excavations and found a treasure without the consent of the owner of the land or property where the treasure was hidden, then the reward is not paid to you and goes entirely to the owner.

Who pays the reward for the treasure found?

Money, as a rule, is paid either by the regional or federal budget, depending on where the discovered values ​​were sent.

Found items that are valuable to the state are subject to transfer to the museum, and precious metals, stones and products made from them are sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the State Institution for the Formation of the State Fund of Precious Metals and Precious Stones of the Russian Federation (Gokhran).

Today I dreamed that I found a gold bar. Some friend was ready to give 1.5 million dollars for him. Half the night in my sleep I thought about where to invest this money in order to receive dividends. But the main question is how to legally make such a treasure your own. How will the state react? Or take the bullion to another country?

I haven't slept half the night, help.

Andrey B.

Andrey, first of all, let’s understand what a treasure is. Maybe you will actually be lucky enough to find it. Because any property can be found, but not all of it is a treasure.

Artem Terpyachiy

Tinkoff Bank lawyer

What is a treasure

The official definition of treasure is “money or valuable objects buried in the ground or otherwise hidden, the owner of which cannot be identified or, by virtue of law, has lost the right to it.”

According to the law, the found treasure is divided between the person who discovered the treasure and the owner of the land plot or building where the treasure was buried or hidden. The division occurs in equal shares, unless otherwise provided by agreement. But there are details.

If you find a treasure in an area whose owner did not consent to the search, then the entire treasure belongs to the owner, not you.

If the treasure has historical or cultural value, then you are obliged to transfer it to the state. You will receive a reward in the amount of 50% of the value of the treasure. By law, remuneration must be transferred to you within a month from the moment the value of the treasure is determined.

Whether or not the discovered treasure is of historical and cultural value is decided by the expert examination.

Now the instruction on treasures, approved by the USSR Ministry of Finance in 1984, continues to be in force. At the same time, there is a more recent instruction, according to which the internal affairs bodies are responsible for the safety of finds. To avoid any confusion, I advise you to simply go to the nearest police station if you find treasure.

If you find a treasure on your land

We must also act according to the law - transfer the treasure to the state. In this case, there will be no need to share the reward with anyone - 50% of the value of the treasure.

I want to warn you against hiding the found treasure. Having appropriated the treasure, the treasure hunter becomes an unscrupulous acquirer: it can be claimed by the owner of the land plot or the state itself.

If you have a question about personal finance, luxury purchases or family budgeting, write to: [email protected]. We will answer the most interesting questions in the magazine.

In accordance with Article 233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, treasure is understood as money or valuable objects buried in the ground or otherwise hidden, the owner of which cannot be identified or, by force of law, has lost the right to them.

The found treasure becomes the property of the person who owns the property (land plot, building, etc.) where the treasure was hidden, as well as the person who discovered the treasure, in equal shares, unless otherwise established by agreement between them.
In the event that the treasure was found by someone without the consent of the owner of the land plot or other property where the treasure was hidden, the treasure must be transferred to the owner of the land plot or other property where the treasure was discovered.
Thus, if you are lucky enough to find valuables while rummaging through a plot of land that belongs to you, then you become the owner of everything discovered, and not 25%. But, as with any rule, there is one exception. If the found treasure contains things related to historical or cultural monuments, then such things are subject to transfer to state ownership. In this case, the owner of the land plot or other property where the treasure was hidden, and the person who discovered the treasure, have the right to receive together a reward in the amount of fifty percent of the value of the treasure. The specified remuneration is distributed between these persons in equal shares, with the exception of cases when an agreement between them establishes a different size of shares, and also with the exception of those situations when the person who carried out the excavations or searches for valuables did so without the consent of the owner of the property where the treasure was hidden . In this case, the reward to the treasure hunter is not paid and goes entirely to the owner of the property where the treasure was hidden. The establishment of historical value is carried out by specialists, who, as a rule, are museum workers. These rules do not apply if the treasure is found by persons whose work or official duties included conducting excavations and searches aimed at discovering the treasure.

As for the taxation of income received as a result of finding a treasure, there are two options. If the treasure becomes the property of the person who found it, then the obligation arises to pay personal income tax; in the same case, when the treasure is transferred to the ownership of the state, then the person who found the treasure receives a reward that is not subject to personal income tax, in accordance with paragraph 23 Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Much depends on the circumstances under which the treasures were found. Article 233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation defines treasure as money or other valuables buried in the ground or otherwise hidden, the owner of which has not been identified or, due to legal circumstances, has lost the right to them.

Found values ​​are divided in equal shares between the one who discovered them and the one on whose territory they were found, unless, of course, there was another agreement between them. If the treasure was found without the knowledge of the owner of the land or building where it was located, then the valuables should be transferred to him. It turns out that if you find a treasure on your property, it will become your property completely, without 25% tax to the state. But, if the things you find are of historical and cultural value, they will become the property of the state. True, in this case the finder receives a reward equal to half the value of the treasure. If there was more than one treasure hunter, the reward is divided equally between them. If the treasure was discovered on someone else's territory, without the knowledge of its owner, then the reward will be paid only to him. The historical and cultural value of the found items is determined by museum workers.

All of these rules are not applicable if valuable things are discovered by persons who, due to their official duties, do not have the right to search for treasure and conduct excavations carried out to discover the treasure. For example, these are builders, workers involved in laying gas and water pipelines.

Those who are inspired by the idea of ​​finding a treasure and getting it into their own property should not forget about the impermissibility of destroying or damaging cultural and historical monuments and structures in the process of searching for or extracting found values. Also, no one has the right to conduct excavations at archaeological and cultural sites. To conduct archaeological exploration, you must obtain special permission. For excavations carried out without permission, so-called “black excavations”, in accordance with Article 243 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the perpetrators are held criminally liable. Depending on the severity and circumstances of the crime, the penalty may be a significant fine or imprisonment for up to five years.

Income received from a discovered treasure that becomes the property of the finder is subject to personal income tax. If the treasure is given into the ownership of the state, then in this case the finder is entitled to a reward, which will not be taxed, in accordance with paragraph 23 of Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.