On May 1 1, responsible comrades of the Ministry of Finance, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Budget Working Committee, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China hosted a symposium on the pilot work in real estate tax reform in Beijing to listen to the opinions of responsible comrades of some urban people's governments and some experts and scholars on the pilot work in real estate tax reform.
This was evaluated by the industry as "the four units that decided to legislate to levy property tax gathered together, and the signal significance was extraordinary".
Property tax legislation is affirmative, but the process is long.
Since 20 13 Central Committee first proposed to speed up the real estate tax legislation, the task of "real estate tax legislation" has been nailed down, and the topic of when to start real estate tax legislation has also attracted much attention.
2065438+On August 5, 2005, the real estate tax law entered the legislative plan of China People's Congress for the first time.
On September 7th, 20 18, in the 13th legislative plan of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), 1 1 tax laws, including real estate tax laws, appeared in the first category of projects at the same time, that is, the conditions are relatively mature, and it is planned to be submitted for deliberation during the term of the current NPC Standing Committee.
On March 9, 2065438+09, at the press conference of the Second Session of the 13th National People's Congress, Wu Ritu, deputy director of NPC Financial and Economic Committee, said in response to the question of real estate tax legislation, "The real estate tax law was drafted by the the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Budget Working Committee and the Ministry of Finance. At present, the relevant departments are working hard to improve the draft law, demonstrate important issues, and submit it to the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) for preliminary consideration when conditions are ripe. "
In the 14th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Outline of Long-term Goals in 2035 (the full text) released on March 13 this year (hereinafter referred to as the "Planning Outline"), "Promoting real estate tax legislation" was written into this planning outline to plan the development in the next five years and the long-term goals in 2035.
Chapter 2 1 of the Outline of the Plan mentions the establishment of a modern fiscal and taxation financial system, "promoting the legislation of real estate tax, improving the local tax system, and gradually expanding the local tax management authority."
In addition, from the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance mentioned the real estate tax four times in half a year.
However, on April 2 1 this year, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC)'s "202 1 Legislative Work Plan" did not mention the real estate tax.
Is it time to introduce a real estate tax?
According to Li, chief researcher of Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center, real estate tax has a clear path of promotion, that is, according to the principle of "legislation first, full authorization and step-by-step promotion", real estate tax legislation and reform are actively and steadily promoted. But now, the real estate tax needs to be accelerated. After the epidemic, while the house price accelerated, the real estate promoted the polarization between the rich and the poor significantly. The demand for real estate speculation by the rich is increasing, and the price of high-grade commercial housing is rising rapidly, which is in urgent need of tax adjustment.
So, does it mean that it is time for the Ministry of Finance and other four departments to gather in Beijing for a symposium?
Xu Xiaole, chief analyst of RealData, pointed out that I don't think there are too many challenges in the legal basis and technical means at present, but it is difficult to find the right time to introduce the real estate tax in the face of the challenges of many major events at home and abroad, such as the Sino-US trade war and the COVID-19 epidemic, so as to ensure that the policy will not have a great impact on market expectations after its introduction.
In its view, the possible challenges are the increase in tax costs caused by rising real estate prices and the lack of understanding of family housing ownership. If the land price and house price deviate from the actual income level of residents in the case of spiraling house prices and residents' debts, the tax will be more and more reflected in the taxation of asset prices, which may increase the actual payment pressure of residents.
Zhang Ping, an associate professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, mentioned in the book "Governance Significance of China Real Estate Tax Reform" that for residents and enterprises, most taxes are paid as little as possible. The levy of real estate tax is bound to face many obstacles and doubts, which need the government to explain to residents in different ways before and during the implementation.
What impact will the introduction of real estate tax have on the market?
Xu Xiaole believes that the introduction of real estate tax will reconstruct the relationship between supply and demand in the market in the short term, mainly because multi-suite owners will evaluate according to their own payment costs. Some houses may be sold in the short term, which has a pulse effect. The owner's sale at a reduced price will lead to a downward trend in the short term. The size of the impact depends on the ownership of family housing. These cities are usually cities with strong demand, and the influence of the supply side will soon be digested by the demand side. The real estate price will become seller's pricing plus tax, and whether the seller's pricing will rise or not depends on the relationship between supply and demand in the urban market. In the long run, real estate tax is essentially a kind of cost, which will reduce the transactions in the overall market. This cost is ultimately borne by the market, whether it is the buyer or the developer, depending on the price elasticity of both parties, and the tax burden will fall more on the inflexible party.
In Zhang Ping's view, real estate tax is diversified. It is pointed out that in the long-term mechanism of the real estate market, real estate tax has the potential to become a stable main source of income for local governments and help local governments get rid of their dependence on land finance; Through the incentive compatibility between real estate tax and local public services, the local "real estate tax-public services" adjustment mechanism is formed; As a kind of housing holding cost, it helps to curb residents' speculative demand for housing and reduce the asset attribute of housing; Establish a feedback mechanism between local commercial housing and affordable housing by using part of the tax revenue for the construction and operation of local affordable housing; In addition, it can also reflect the benefit tax and adjustment tax attributes of real estate tax. After the real estate tax is levied, even if the amount of relief is appropriately relaxed at the beginning and the tax rate is low, it may still face various problems. Because residents have established the expectation that the cost of holding real estate will gradually increase, it will have a certain impact on the whole real estate industry from the beginning. The government needs to make relevant plans in the production, consumption and circulation of the real estate industry, and make full use of its policy tools to ensure the stable and healthy development of the real estate industry.
Li's point of view is that the function of taxation is not only to organize fiscal revenue, but also to adjust the income gap. Therefore, the current situation of real estate and wealth distribution urgently needs taxation to adjust. It is estimated that hot cities will speed up the study of local implementation plans and start to levy two or more houses and over-sized houses.
In addition, Li pointed out that China will make reference to the international system. First, give tax incentives to vulnerable groups such as low-income and widowed families, exempt the first suite or a certain area, and the tax rate for improved housing is low. Secondly, like other countries that implement real estate tax, China will reduce the tax rate (the tax rate in some States in the United States is as low as 0.2%) by discounting the evaluation price (3-4 fold in some States in the United States) when the house price rises, and control the tax burden by controlling the proportion of tax expenditure to residents' income within a certain range (3-5% in the United States and Japan). Considering the international practices that restrict the use of real estate tax, such as being earmarked for the construction of school districts, strictly "allocating expenses according to needs", and listing the use details on tax receipts at the end of the year, the collection of real estate tax will help consolidate the supply of public services, reduce the cost of living and strengthen social security. Thirdly, raise the tax threshold, increase the pre-tax deduction, and implement the principle of "increasing without decreasing", structural tax reduction and no increase in the total tax burden. Moreover, the transformation from indirect tax to direct tax has the reform effect of building a civil society, shaping a new concept of wealth, building citizens' awareness of independent tax payment and government services, and a virtuous circle.