The National Development And Reform Commission Plans To Introduce A Resource Tax Reform Plan, Or Just A Policy Plan

According to chinagov.cn, the State Council agreed with the Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission on the Key Work of Deepening Economic Restructuring in 2010. The Opinions pointed out that a resource tax reform plan was introduced to gradually promote the reform of property tax.

This year is a crucial year for us to continue to cope with the international financial crisis and maintain steady and rapid economic development. The deep adjustment and profound changes in the international and domestic economy urgently require us to intensify reform, further remove the institutional and institutional barriers that restrict the adjustment of economic structure and the transformation of the mode of economic development, and effectively promote scientific development.

　　 The Opinions pointed out that the reform of the fiscal and taxation system should be deepened.

（1） We will introduce a resource tax reform plan, unify the urban construction tax and education surtax systems for domestic and foreign enterprises and individuals, gradually promote the reform of property tax, study and implement the reform of the personal income tax system, improve the consumption tax system, and study the plan to levy environmental taxes.

（2） We will work out a comprehensive budget for central and local government funds, a trial budget for social insurance funds, improve the budget for state-owned capital operations, and accelerate the formation of a complete, unified, and organically linked public budget system covering all government revenues and expenditures. We will make budgets more transparent and improve oversight mechanisms. We will study and establish a local government financial risk prevention and control mechanism.

（3） Establish a system for statistical reporting of state-owned assets and revenue management of administrative institutions. We will improve the management system for turning in and using the operating income of state-owned capital of central enterprises.

Real estate tax, levy or not?

Despite the hype, it is still unclear whether Shanghai will really levy property retention tax. Not long ago, it was officially announced in Shanghai that the detailed regulation rules of Shanghai's real estate and the introduction of real estate tax were in progress. However, the State Administration of Taxation said that the central government had no power to introduce new taxes, and the introduction of real estate tax changed abruptly.

Complicated property tax

It is still doubtful whether the real estate tax will be levied.

The news began on April 8. It is said that Shanghai plans to levy a property ownership tax, which will be led by the Shanghai Housing Security and Housing Administration Bureau, and the basic implementation plan has been determined. On the same day, the website of Shanghai Housing Administration Bureau responded quickly and rarely, saying that the research being carried out by the relevant departments is "completely normal", but the specific collection should be "determined at the national level, and implemented well by the local authorities".

On April 17, the new "National Ten Rules" of the property market proposed to speed up the research and formulation of "tax policies to guide individual reasonable housing consumption and adjust individual property income", which triggered the industry's association with the introduction of property tax and property tax.

On May 4, Ji Huaiyin, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance and Finance of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, disclosed through the official media: "The collection of taxes on housing tenure is a fundamental policy to ensure the healthy development of the housing market, and also a fundamental policy to solve many thorny problems facing China at present. It is better to collect taxes early than late, but it needs to be implemented step by step rather than overnight."

On May 12, the media reported that Shanghai had held a communication meeting attended by leaders of district governments and relevant competent departments to discuss the regulation rules of Shanghai's property market, including the property tax collection method. The detailed rules will be announced as soon as this month, and the property tax collection will be officially launched after the detailed rules are issued. The preliminary draft takes the per capita area of families as an important basis for whether to levy property tax. If the tax conditions are met, the property tax equivalent to 8 ‰ of the property value shall be paid annually. The tax basis is the appraisal price rather than the transaction price of the property.

On May 14, Tu Guangshao, the vice mayor of Shanghai in charge of finance, responded for the first time, saying that the detailed regulation rules of Shanghai's real estate and the introduction of property tax were in progress.

It seems that everything has become logical without any hindrance. However, this was not the case, and the question soon came from the relevant central departments.

On May 17, Niu Xinwen, head of the Information Department of the State Administration of Taxation, said: "According to the current regulations, the tax legislation power is in the central government, that is, the central government decides and the local government implements, and the local government has no power to introduce new taxes."

Prior to this, the meeting between Shanghai Housing Administration Bureau and several real estate developers from the Housing Industry Chamber of Commerce of the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce has been reported, and the introduction of the property tax may be postponed to the second half of the year. On May 20, Sina Leju revealed that the property tax may not be introduced this year.

So far, whether the real estate tax is introduced or not has been twists and turns, full of mystery. However, the drama is still behind.

On May 22, the media revealed that Huang Hanquan, the assistant to the director of the Industrial Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, made a clear statement on May 17: "The property tax will be exempted within three years."

On the 24th, the National Development and Reform Commission, through the Xinhua News Agency, refuted the rumor, saying that the speech of the relevant researchers of the Industrial Research Institute of the Development and Reform Commission that "property tax will be exempted within three years" did not represent the position of the Development and Reform Commission. The above remarks on property tax "are seriously untrue and have caused extremely bad effects".

Whether to levy or not to levy the property tax that affects people's minds is really a question. {page_break}

　 It may be just a policy plan

In an interview with the Times, Liu Shangxi, the deputy director of the Institute of Financial Science of the Ministry of Finance, expressed the same position with the NDRC official: "The NDRC researchers said that the property tax would not be levied for three years. He is from the research department, can he represent the official?"

So far, the central government has not made a decision on the collection of property tax, and the attitude of the Shanghai Municipal Government towards property tax has also retreated from the original "firm", which seems to be a dilemma. Some insiders told reporters that the introduction of property tax may only be a policy plan for Shanghai to regulate housing prices. It is an assumption that, according to his estimation, it will not be imposed in the short term. "The Shanghai Municipal Government's statement on housing prices is not very clear, and we cannot expand our understanding because it does not clearly say that housing prices should be lowered."

As evidence, according to the reporter of the Time Weekly, about 10 days ago, Tu Guangshao, the vice mayor of Shanghai, had intended to convene some deputies to the Municipal People's Congress to hold a symposium on the regulation of housing prices, but it ended in nothing. "I said I was busy. I will open it another day. Later, there was no voice. I think I have new ideas. Let's wait and see," an insider told reporters.

"Personally, I feel that the possibility of real estate tax is almost zero." Lu Qilin, deputy director of Youwei Real Estate Research Center, told the Times, "So far, I haven't seen anything substantive."

Tang Hui, the market director of Shanghai Shangshi Real Estate Investment Consulting Co., Ltd., believes that the Shanghai Municipal Government has not yet issued detailed rules to regulate the property market, which should be repeated weighing, and will also compare with other local governments. In his opinion, the regulatory measures in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places are not very strict, and Shanghai should not introduce very strict measures. The real estate tax will significantly suppress the housing price. Once it is levied, the real estate industry related to more than 30 industries will be deeply affected, which will directly compress the local fiscal revenue. "The local government should consider the fiscal revenue. When the economy is not completely improved, the introduction of property tax will be very cautious."

　　 Legal threshold for taxation

Similarly, as the tax category in the property ownership link, it is generally believed that the property tax is a "variant" of the property tax. According to the provisions of the Tax Administration Law of China, there must be legal provisions for the start, stop and reduction of any tax. As a new kind of tax, property tax has complicated legal procedures. The real estate tax is an existing tax, which has been stipulated in the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Tax issued by the State Council in 1986, and its levy seems more feasible.

In Liu Shangxi's opinion, there is no difference between the two taxes. "The property tax is the property tax, and the property tax is the property tax." However, Zhao Xijun, vice president of the School of Finance of Renmin University of China, believes that there is still a difference between the property tax and the property tax. In China, since land cannot be transferred freely, but the land use right derived from the land ownership can be transferred within a certain period of time, the property tax includes two parts: one is the remaining years of the land use right, and the other is the buildings on the land within this period of time. In 1986, the real estate tax did not include the land use right. At that time, there was no concept of land use right. Today, it is not clear whether the real estate tax includes the land use right. It is indistinct with the property tax. "If a property tax is to be levied, its concept must be clarified, and it must be clear whether land use rights are included."

In addition, although the "Interim Regulations" of 1986 is in the front, there are still some differences between the concept of real estate tax that is currently being hyped by the media and that of that year. Paragraph 4 of Article 5 of the Interim Regulations stipulates that individual non business housing is exempt from property tax. According to the preliminary draft of Shanghai real estate tax collection disclosed by the media, in fact, individual non business housing has been included.

"It is necessary to modify the Provisional Regulations of that year. Before the regulations are modified, they cannot be collected." Bo Haibao, a senior lawyer of Haitian Law Firm, told the Times, "It is impossible for the local government to decide how to change them unless authorized by the central government."

Some experts said that according to the current media reports, Shanghai may have made a new interpretation on the definition of business real estate, explaining that owning multiple houses is business real estate, so that it can be collected within the scope of the regulations, saving the trouble of amending the regulations.

Bo Haibao didn't agree with this statement: "The interpretation of which are business properties and which are non business properties is not local authority, at least the State Administration of Taxation has the power."

Liu Shangxi also believes that whether the local government can define commercial real estate depends on whether the central government gives the local authority. "Local governments can issue implementation rules, make definitions under the authorization of the central government, and then report to the central government for record." {page_break}

　　 Torture the rationality of taxation

The property tax is generally considered as the "sharp tool" for the regulation of the property market. Because of this, whether it is introduced or not is more uncertain. However, there are many disputes in the industry about whether the regulation effect is so immediate.

"It's very obvious that it will suppress the house price in the short term. I believe that once implemented, the house price may fall by 15% - 20% this year." Tang Hui told reporters. In his opinion, once the property tax comes out, the buyer's psychology will be "one-sided", and everyone will not buy a house. At present, the decline in the transaction volume of the property market has been very obvious. Once new policies are introduced, the property price will certainly decline. However, he also said that in the long run, it is hard to say how much the property tax will affect the house price.

"The real estate tax should not be levied, but it must be levied. At present, the house price has not fallen, and this is a good time for the government to fight. The introduction of the real estate tax will certainly crowd out speculators. With high taxes and progressive taxes, even speculators with abundant funds will not be indifferent. With less speculation, the house price will surely come down." Yi Xianrong, a researcher of the Institute of Finance of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Times. "We should quickly formulate a standard to comprehensively consider which houses can be tax-free, and those houses that occupy more, have high value, and are used to make money must be levied."

However, Lu Qilin believes that the news of the levy of property tax can only be said to have changed the market expectations, which will have an impact on land sales and transactions in a short period of time, but it is not clear whether it will lead to a decline in house prices. "The current regulatory policies are all extremely depressing demand, and the property tax is still in the scope of suppressing demand, so as to achieve the balance between supply and demand in disguised form. The most important thing is to increase supply, so as to avoid the retaliatory rebound of house prices."

In Liu Shangxi's view, "the collection of property tax will only make the house price higher, which is very simple. The tax will be passed on to the buyer, thus pushing up the house price. Unless the tax collected is far more than the income from the rise of house price, for example, if the house price doubled in five years, the tax will quadruple. If so, the collapse of real estate will follow."

There are indeed buyers who are afraid of tax transfer. Miss Zhang, who is preparing to buy a house in Shanghai, said that most transactions of second-hand houses in Shanghai are based on the "received price" of the landlord, and all taxes are borne by the buyer. Once the property tax is levied, it is likely that the buyer will pay the bill as usual, driving up the house price in a disguised way.

This also leads to the questioning of the rationality of the levy of property tax. "Whether it is necessary to levy taxes depends on what the purpose is. If the purpose of levying the property tax is to open up new sources of income for local finance, the property tax is a small type of tax, which can not be levied much, and the cost of levying is very high. If it is to curb housing prices, the tax does not have much effect." Liu Shangxi said.

Zhao Xijun told the reporter, "Whether to levy a property tax, the legislature should first clarify the purpose of the tax. If it is to provide income for the government, then the government must balance the relationship between income and expenditure, as well as with the local economy. If it is to make some economic phenomena more fair, it is also a good tax reason to reduce the vacancy rate of houses and improve the efficiency of asset use. However, in my opinion, the property tax only increases the cost of holding the house. It is really hard to say whether it can improve the efficiency of asset use. It has nothing to do with the rise or fall of house prices. "

"The principle of taxation is very hard and clear. If you follow this principle, you will have no problem. Otherwise, you need to think again," said Zhao Xijun.