"The reform of Shanghai-Chongqing real estate tax is not successful. In terms of functional positioning, I personally do not agree with it as the function of raising fiscal revenue. The Shanghai-Chongqing pilot showed that it had little effect." Regarding the main function positioning of real estate tax "government income", Ge Jing, associate professor of the School of Management of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, denied it at the seminar on "Theory and Practice of Real Estate Tax Legislation in the New Era" held recently.
Ge Jing's "Inspiration and Improvement Suggestions on the Pilot of Real Estate Tax Reform in Shanghai and Chongqing" evaluated the effectiveness of the pilot of real estate tax reform in Shanghai and Chongqing that has been implemented for more than a year in 2012. Judging from the effectiveness of organizational fiscal revenue, as of the end of 2011, Chongqing City had levied property taxes on residential housing of 100 million yuan. In 2011, Chongqing's fiscal revenue at the same level was 290.88 billion yuan, and the proportion of property tax to the same level was about 0.03%. Shanghai's real estate tax revenue accounts for about 0.02% of the fiscal revenue at this level. It can be seen that under the property tax pilot policy of the two cities, the basic functions and role of the real estate tax organization's fiscal revenue are minimal.
In Ge Jing's view, real estate tax reform should not "cross the river by feeling the stones".
"Real estate tax reform is a systematic error correction process, mainly involving three levels of institutional error correction." Ge Jing pointed out.
The first level of linkage reform is to start from the reform of the rural land system, and at the same time improve the property rights law and then the reform of the real estate tax system. This level of reform mainly solves the problem of the justice of real estate tax.
"The source of land is derived from agricultural land during the continuous expansion and construction of cities. In China, farmland cannot be transferred without the requisition of local governments, so its source comes from the expropriation of farmland. Then the local government adopts a planning mechanism to requisition land from farmers and give compensation of 6-10 times according to crops, and then auction it to real estate developers. In this process, local governments are the biggest beneficiaries, farmers and citizens are both victims of interests. Farmers only receive very meager compensation for crops, while citizens receive high land prices and high housing prices. Therefore, the origin of the real estate tax is the reform of the rural land system." Ge Jing said.
In Ge Jing's view, the public ownership of the state's land can be taxed because land ownership is a virtual ownership system, and the land use right is a real taxable one. However, if both real estate tax is imposed and land transfer fees are collected, there is a problem of repeated taxation.
"Whether the government collects land transfer fees or real estate taxes, from the perspective of citizens, they lose their own funds. The government has collected two times from citizens. The government collects land transfer fees from the perspective of being the land owner. If real estate tax is imposed, I think it will be improved at least in the Property Law, that is, what should I do after 70 years? The current Property Law clearly states that it will be automatically renewed, and I think it should be automatically renewed "free". Ge Jing suggested that.
The second level of institutional reform is that real estate tax reform should be a coordinated reform and should be linked to fiscal system reform. This level of reform mainly solves the benefit tax problem of real estate tax.
Ge Jing pointed out, "If real estate tax wants to be accepted by the public, it should be defined as a benefit tax. Taking real estate tax as a benefit tax can achieve the purpose of taking it from the people and using it for the people."
Ge Jing pointed out that only by forming a virtuous cycle system of "housing price-real estate tax-education quality" is formed, although local residents do not welcome real estate tax, it is acceptable. Real estate tax is a benefit tax, which truly reflects "from the people and using it for the people." The one-to-one correspondence between beneficiaries and taxpayers is obvious. If it is used for public rental housing construction, it will achieve the effect of reducing the wealth and helping the poor, but it will make taxpayers (rich) more boycotted.
The third level of linkage reform is that real estate tax should be linked to real estate transaction tax reform. This level of reform mainly solves the problem of substantial tax reductions to taxpayers.
"To solve the problem of substantial tax reductions to taxpayers. In the transaction process, the taxes and fees must be deleted or merged, and then real estate tax will be imposed."
In Ge Jing's view, the reform of Shanghai-Chongqing property tax is "not successful.""In terms of functional positioning, I personally do not agree with setting it as a function of raising fiscal revenue, and the pilot showed that it had little effect." Ge Jing pointed out.
On January 28, 2011, Shanghai and Chongqing began to implement a pilot reform of imposing property tax on personal housing.
From the perspective of taxation objects, the taxation objects of Shanghai's real estate tax are mainly "incremental housing", that is, local residents purchase second or more housing and new housing for non-local residents. The existing housing has not been subject to taxation scope. Therefore, the main policy goal of the city's real estate tax reform is to curb speculative housing speculation and stabilize housing prices. The taxation targets of Chongqing's real estate tax are existing single-family villas, newly purchased high-end
residential buildings and new homes for outsiders. The focus is on taxing high-end residential buildings, which is equivalent to levied special consumption tax on luxury houses. Therefore, the main policy goal of the city's real estate tax reform is to give full play to the function of tax regulating income distribution and curb consumption of high-end residential buildings. From the perspective of tax rate, Shanghai's property tax rate is 0.6%, with a 70% appraisal rate, so the effective tax rate is 0.42%. Chongqing's real estate tax is a progressive tax rate of 0.5% to 1.2%.
In terms of tax calculation basis, both markets are calculated based on transaction prices rather than appraisal prices. In terms of duty-free area, Shanghai is exempt from tax based on the per capita area of 60 square meters, and Chongqing is exempt from tax based on two standards: 180 square meters per household and 100 square meters of newly purchased single-family commercial housing and high-end housing. In short, Chongqing's property tax can be called "luxury house tax", and Shanghai's property tax can be called "incremental tax".
In 2012, Ge Jing evaluated the effectiveness of the pilot reform of real estate tax in Shanghai and Chongqing that has been implemented for more than a year. Judging from the effectiveness of organizational fiscal revenue, as of the end of 2011, Chongqing City had levied property taxes on residential housing of 100 million yuan. In 2011, Chongqing's fiscal revenue at the same level was 290.88 billion yuan, and the proportion of property tax to the same level was about 0.03%. Shanghai's real estate tax revenue accounts for about 0.02% of the fiscal revenue at this level.
After many years of pilot project in Shanghai and Chongqing, Ge Jing believes that if the real estate tax reform cannot be well linked to the reform of the rural land system, the improvement of the property rights law, and the reform of the real estate tax system, no matter how the real estate tax system is designed, it will not be able to achieve any functional positioning.
Ge Jing pointed out, "The NPC's real estate tax legislation has not arrived for a long time? Can the property tax in Shanghai and Chongqing be suspended?"
