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 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.
A short span of more than 90 words did not reveal more content, but a stone stirred up a thousand waves.
"Real estate tax work must be done. Judging from the statement of the meeting, the legislation of real estate tax has begun to be positive. However, the central decision-making level should also consider promoting the legislative process of real estate tax according to the overall situation. " Ni Hongri, a researcher at the State Council Development Research Center, said.
In Ni Hongri's view, the real estate tax reform is a comprehensive tax adjustment and improvement, and the resumption of housing taxation is only one aspect of the real estate tax reform. At the same time, there is no need to be too nervous about taxing houses. Under the background of "houses are for living, not for speculation", houses necessary for life will be exempted in a certain area.
Real estate tax is expected to expand the pilot
It is worth mentioning that this meeting is a "symposium on pilot work in real estate tax reform", so how to understand the word "pilot"?
Ni Hongri said that the path of real estate tax reform has been basically determined, which is "legislation first, full authorization and step-by-step implementation". In other words, the first step is legislation. The basic legal framework of real estate tax is legislated by the National People's Congress. Then the scope of real estate tax collection and the determination of tax rate are fully authorized to the provincial local governments, which will determine it according to the actual situation in the region and gradually promote the reform of real estate tax.
"Therefore, I personally understand that the' pilot' in the forum refers to the experience sharing and summary of the pilot work in Shanghai and Chongqing. Of course, expanding the pilot program is not ruled out. Generally speaking, the legislative framework of the National People's Congress will be rough, but there are several points: the tax base should be changed, and the merger of the two taxes (property tax and urban land use tax) is a local tax. " Ni Hongri said.
Kang Jia, president of Huaxia Institute of New Supply Economics and former director of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, believes that the previous statement of the management department was "steadily advancing the legislation of real estate tax", emphasizing "stability" and "appropriateness", and it was no longer expressed as "accelerating the legislation of real estate tax", so the pilot can be expanded on the basis of summing up the experience of the existing pilot cities of Shanghai and Chongqing.
Some insiders also pointed out that before the real estate tax legislation, it is expected to take the lead in implementing the real estate tax pilot in some cities.
It is reported that before this symposium, relevant government departments also held relevant meetings on real estate tax work at the beginning of this year. According to informed sources, there should be some new moves this year. Some cities with good conditions, developed real estate market and mature financial and technical support will pilot property tax first.
"On the basis of referring to the implementation of property tax in Shanghai and other places, we will expand pilot cities, first land property tax in some cities, let the public get familiar with property tax, develop the awareness and habits of property tax, and then gradually accumulate experience to promote it. The real estate tax pilot is also expected to land within one or two years. At the same time, there will be some adjustments to the property tax implemented in Shanghai and Chongqing. " The above-mentioned insiders said.
According to Konka's proposal, the current real estate tax failed to speed up legislation. Shenzhen and Hainan have high hopes for the task of central reform, and they only need to go through the corresponding procedures to join the property tax pilot. On the basis of absorbing the experience of Shanghai and Chongqing, Shenzhen and Hainan should be more thoughtful and level in the design of policy programs.
The real estate tax was mentioned four times in half a year.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance and other four departments held a symposium on pilot work in real estate tax reform. In the past six months, the government has issued four documents to mention the real estate tax.
The last time was on May 6th, 20021year, Minister of Finance Liu Kun wrote an article "Establishing and Perfecting a Modern Fiscal and Taxation System Conducive to High-quality Development" in Economic Daily. The full text is more than 5,000 words, revealing the key work of fiscal and taxation system reform during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. Among them, "promoting real estate tax legislation and reform" was mentioned again.
In addition, on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2020, Liu Kun wrote the article "Establishing a Modern Fiscal and Tax System" in the "Guide to the Suggestions of the Central Committee on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goals in 2035", which elaborated in detail the tasks of fiscal and tax reform during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. When talking about further improving the modern tax system in the article, he mentioned that we should actively and steadily promote the legislation and reform of real estate tax in accordance with the principle of "legislation first, full authorization and step-by-step implementation".
On February 23rd, 65438, Liu Kun published the article "Establishing Modern Fiscal and Tax System" in People's Daily. The article mentioned that taxation is an important tool for the state to implement macro-control and adjust income distribution. During the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to establish and improve a tax system that is conducive to high-quality development, social fairness, and unified market, optimize the tax structure, and at the same time improve the efficiency of tax collection and management.
The article also talked about the real estate tax that has attracted much attention, but the expression has not changed. The article points out that the legislation and reform of real estate tax should be actively and steadily promoted in accordance with the principle of "legislation first, full authorization and step by step".
In the eyes of the industry, real estate tax, as a tax on individual housing, can correct the current imbalance of social wealth distribution, and at the same time, real estate tax has been given the role of preventing excessive housing prices, so the legislative progress of real estate tax has attracted much attention.
According to the legislative arrangement of the 13th National People's Congress, the real estate tax will be legislated during the term of this NPC. According to the timetable, the term of office of the 13th the NPC Standing Committee (NPC Standing Committee) is from March 2065438 to March 2023.
This also means that the real estate tax is expected to start legislation before 2023.
Chen Jie, director and professor of the Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Research Center of Shanghai Jiaotong University, pointed out in an interview with this newspaper that judging from the signals released by the forum, the pace of real estate tax legislation is expected to accelerate.
In Chen Jie's view, the main objectives of real estate tax include three aspects: first, it is the main tax type of local government; The second is to make housing resources more reasonable and fair allocation; The third is to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. The goal of the introduction of real estate tax will certainly take into account many aspects, so the pilot can also measure how much financial resources the real estate tax can add to the local government in order to gradually replace the land transfer fee system in the future, which will definitely require some practice. "I personally think that the tax base and tax rate are the important contents of the pilot, which makes the real estate tax system more scientific and detailed, and makes the real estate tax within the acceptable range of most taxpayers, preparing for the promotion of real estate tax in the future. For the real estate market, excessive shocks should be avoided. The core of real estate market regulation is' stability'. Therefore, the government does not want the landing of real estate tax to suppress the real estate market too much, causing shocks. "