In 2016, the Shanghai Municipal Office of State Taxation and the Shanghai Municipal Office of Local Taxation issued a notice on the payment of personal housing property tax in 2016. Some citizens were surprised by the news that 'this is probably a signal for the official implementation of property tax'. Some residents even decided that 'the property tax rate has been finalized and is expected to spread across the country' according to some details in the notice.
What are the facts?
After investigation, the reporter found that this tax is not that tax.
The "personal housing property tax" mentioned in the microblog of Shanghai Municipal Office of State Administration of taxation is not the "property tax" that everyone thinks it is - it is the pilot property tax that Shanghai started in 2011.
Ge Yuyu, a doctor from Shanghai National Accounting College, told reporters that China implements a 'real estate tax', not a 'real estate tax' as the outside world says. The implementation of real estate tax will only be 'late', but it will not be absent.
True, real estate tax is a topic of people's livelihood. How far is it to be implemented nationwide?
In Ge Yuyu's view, considering that the legislation of real estate tax has not yet reached a consensus and the conditions for levying real estate tax are not perfect, now is not the best time to implement real estate tax. "It may be more reliable to launch real estate tax in five years.".
How should Shanghai citizens pay property tax
In January 2011, Shanghai and Chongqing simultaneously launched the pilot project of levying house property tax on individual housing.
The reporter learned that the Interim Measures for Shanghai to carry out the pilot of levying real estate tax on some individual houses stipulate that if the total housing area per capita of a combined family exceeds 60 or equal to 60 square meters, real estate tax shall be levied on the excess area of newly purchased houses. The tax base shall be calculated and paid according to 70% of the transaction price of the taxable housing market, and the applicable tax rate shall be tentatively set at 0.6%. If the market transaction price of the housing is less than 2 times (including 2 times) of the average sales price of the new commercial housing in the previous year, the tax rate will be temporarily reduced to 0.4%.
Among them, the tax rate of real estate tax is 1.2% if it is calculated and paid according to the residual value of real estate, and 12% if it is calculated and paid according to the rental income of real estate.
"Interim Regulations on property tax" clearly stipulates that "property owned by individuals for non business purposes shall be exempt from property tax. In other words, the real estate tax is mainly aimed at the houses owned by enterprises or the houses for rental and other forms of business purposes, and the real estate tax on individual houses has not yet been fully levied.
The terms are rather obscure, for example.
Take Shanghai as an example. Suppose a family of three already has a house of 180 square meters, which is just 60 square meters per capita. Now they buy a new house of 80 square meters with a total price of 1 million. Registered residence in accordance with the relevant regulations: the newly purchased housing is more than second sets of households, the tax price is 70% of the transaction price, the tax rate is 0.6%, lower than the average price of 2 times 0.4%. The allowance is 60 square meters per capita (including 60 square meters). Then, the family should pay property tax of 1 million & times; 70% & times; 0.6% = 4200 yuan a year.
The reporter learned that, in addition to the reduction of the per capita area of less than 60 square meters, Shanghai residents' families can be exempted from property tax in five situations, such as' selling the family's original only house within one year after purchasing a new house '.
According to the reporter of international financial news, taxpayers pay property tax twice in May and November every year. Therefore, many local tax bureaus will issue official documents similar to the circular at these two time nodes to remind taxpayers to pay the current tax payable in time during the declaration period and pay the overdue taxes in the past.
The microblog at the beginning of the article is the notice of "collection" issued by Shanghai tax department at the end of each year.
Why are citizens in other cities worried
Just because the topic of "property tax" is too sensitive, after 2011, every time Shanghai issued a notice of tax payment, it would trigger a discussion on related topics.
In fact, it's not just Shanghai citizens who are in a panic.
A few days ago, Miss Zhang, who lives in Nanjing, was told by her friends that she was going to start levying real estate tax.
'it was very sudden. At that time, all the friends around said that Shanghai had already started levying taxes. Later, they were worried and called the relevant departments to find out that it was an oolong. 'miss Zhang told the international financial journal that a few years ago, when she said that the real estate tax pilot was expanding, she speculated that Nanjing would be on the list, so everyone was very sensitive.
A real estate official in Chengdu told the international financial news that on November 1, the local tax department of Chengdu issued a notice on "doing a good job in real estate tax payment", which also aroused public discussion in the local area. He told reporters that the notice made it clear that "the real estate tax is levied according to the original value of the real estate as the tax basis, and the residual value after 30% of the original value of the real estate is deducted at the tax rate of 1.2%; the tax is levied according to the tax rate of 12% if the real estate rental income is used as the tax basis.".
After the notice was issued, the citizens of Chengdu were passing on the real estate tax;. "The source told reporters that because of the uproar, Chengdu local taxation department had to refute the rumor the day after the notice was issued.
The reporter learned that relevant people from Chengdu local taxation department stressed that this notice is aimed at collecting house property tax on non personal business houses, which is not a new deal, but is implemented according to the Interim Regulations of the people's Republic of China on house property tax promulgated in 1986. According to the regulations, the property tax is collected annually and paid twice by taxpayers in May and November each year. November 2016 is the second tax period of this year. Therefore, the real estate tax in the circular has nothing to do with the hot real estate tax.
Why is the effect of Shanghai Chongqing pilot project not good
Shanghai and Chongqing property tax pilot policy has been implemented for five years, how effective?
Relevant statistics show that in the past five years, the average transaction price of residential buildings in Shanghai has increased from 21000 yuan / m2 at the end of 2010 to 45000 yuan / m2 this year, an increase of over 110%. Considering that the new transactions in recent years focus on the suburbs and the statistical price is calculated based on the online price, the actual price increase is still slightly higher. However, according to the statistics of real estate tax revenue in Shanghai in 2015, the comparison between real estate tax revenue and other income is relatively weak.
Cai Weimin, a real estate expert, told the international financial journal that the real estate tax paid by Shanghai and Chongqing is more like a luxury real estate tax than a real estate tax, because from a global perspective, the object of real estate tax collection is very clear, that is, if there is a real estate, it is necessary to pay the tax.
'at present, the real estate tax implemented in Shanghai or Chongqing is not very thorough, and its impact on the market is very limited. There are even many ways to evade tax, such as divorce. "Cai Weimin said.
Ge Yuyu also believes that the pilot projects in Shanghai and Chongqing have not achieved very good results, mainly in three aspects: "first, the income is meager. With the overall efforts of Chongqing Local Taxation Bureau, the property tax collected is less than one thousandth of Chongqing's fiscal revenue, and the situation in Shanghai is similar. Second, the housing price regulation is not effective. Many people hope that real estate tax can regulate house prices, but in fact, apart from other factors, real estate tax does have a weak effect on house prices. Third, the effect of the policy is contrary to the original expectation '.
Ge Yuyu pointed out that the property tax in Shanghai is now called 'incremental property tax', which means' let bygones be bygones'. Whoever wants to buy a new house will be taxed; the property tax in Chongqing is' luxury tax ', which is only levied on large-area and high unit price properties, but not ordinary ones. This means that the pilot projects in Shanghai and Chongqing are more like a 'special consumption tax on real estate' than a real 'real estate tax'.
"In terms of system design, the pilot projects in Shanghai and Chongqing were against the original intention, and from the very beginning they were doomed to fail. Ge Yuyu said frankly that in 2013, the central government no longer talked about expanding the scope of the pilot project, but turned to "legislating first and doing a good job in the top-level design". In fact, it is also a reality that the effect of the pilot project is not good.
What is the reform incision
Real estate tax pilot effect is not good, which link is the problem?
Ge Yuyu pointed out that the government has always wanted to reform the real estate tax, and it is a thorough reform. "At the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, it has changed the" real estate tax "to" real estate tax ", and proposed to speed up the legislation of real estate tax and promote the reform at the right time.".
Real estate tax reform is not only a tax reform, but also a systematic reform related to the real estate industry (including real estate tax, land value-added tax, cultivated land occupation tax, deed tax, etc.). Ge Yuyu believes that the basic goal of the real estate tax reform is to simplify the real estate tax system, increase the cost of holding and reduce the tax burden of transaction.
In Ge Yuyu's view, it is only a matter of time before the real estate tax is levied. In August 2015, the National People's Congress formally incorporated 34 pieces of legislation including the real estate tax law into the legislative plan.
So, how far is the real estate tax from the full levy? In other words, what are the difficulties in the implementation of real estate tax?
Ge Yuyu believes that "first of all, there are difficulties in theory and system design; second, there are difficulties in real estate information: in the case that real estate registration has not been completed and real estate information system has not been established, levying real estate tax means great collection and management costs. The cost of tax collection and management is even greater than the tax revenue itself. Compared with the former two difficulties, conflict of ideas and conflict of interests may be the most difficult. The real estate industry has been questioned by almost all sectors of the society. From the government level, the local government is not active, because the real real estate tax collection means that the land transfer fee will be greatly affected. We can't see clearly how to protect the future fiscal revenue, so we have some doubts about this uncertainty in the future. All these problems need to be solved step by step.
In July, Lou Jiwei, then Minister of finance, said at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors that it was necessary to reform the real estate tax "without hesitation".
Xiao Jie, the current Minister of finance, has a firm attitude towards the Levy of real estate tax, and there is basically no possibility of "cold" real estate tax reform. According to previous public speeches, there are views in the industry that it is not difficult to see that the new finance minister advocates structural tax reduction. While resolutely levying the real estate tax, it is possible to merge the relevant taxes related to the real estate tax.
Is there a timetable for the implementation of real estate tax?
Liu Jianwen, Professor of Law School of Peking University and President of China Society of Finance and taxation law, said, "the term of office of the current NPC is until the end of 2017. It is expected that the real estate tax law will be passed as soon as the end of 2017. If it is slow, it may be submitted for deliberation at the end of 2017 and passed in the term of the next NPC. '
'not in the last five years. Cai Weimin told reporters that in the current situation that many local governments are heavily dependent on land finance, it is difficult to solve the problem of land transfer fees. How to solve this problem, may be the first real estate tax to face.
How to control the property market
It is undeniable that there should be a transitional stage from the adoption to the implementation of the real estate tax law, so that the society has a full understanding, understanding and preparation of the law.
Whether it's real estate tax or real estate tax, people are only concerned about one thing: will house prices fall?
Ge Yuyu believes that the impact of real estate tax on the property market or house prices in the future can not be clearly judged. In theory, there is a logic that the introduction of real estate tax is bound to greatly increase the holding cost of property owners. When people with a large number of houses feel overwhelmed, they will sell their properties (even if the rise of house prices is higher than tax, many people will feel the pain of tax burden) If the supply of houses increases significantly, the price of houses is likely to decline. '
In CAI Weimin's view, the real estate