Legal Issues Of Property Tax Reform, A Number

The real estate tax is a kind of property taxes, which is levied to the house owner and users regarding house as the tax target. It has a long history and has become an integral part of China’s real estate tax and even property tax system after decades of changes and development since the founding of People’s Republic of China. Along with the development of economy, the important role that real estate tax has played in the regulation of the real estate market and improving the income distribution has generally gained attention. However, current legal system of real estate tax is still mainly based on the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Tax of People’s Republic of China (1986) and corresponding implementing regulations released by local government, and it can hardly meet the demands of economic development under current situation in aspect of legislation, scope of taxation, tax calculation basis or tax rate, etc. Therefore, the real estate tax reform has become a closely concerned issue of the government and even the whole society. After series of preparatory work such as theoretic exploration of property tax and real estate simulation assessment pilot, real estate tax reform first kicked off in Shanghai and Chongqing. This paper explores the general theory of the legal system of real estate tax, points out the problems of the legal system in China, and gives corresponding recommendations to improve the legal system of China’s real estate tax from aspects of legislative model and the specific tax system design on the basis of learning from typical national and regional experience in the property tax system and combined with property tax reform experience. The paper is divided into four parts.The first part gives basic theoretical research on the real estate tax, by first defining and Discriminating the concept of real estate tax, real estate tax law and explaining the historical evolution of our current legal system of real estate tax; then analyzing the theoretical basis for real estate tax from the perspective of finance, jurisprudence and tax law; and finally discussing the necessity of real estate tax reform in order to make up for the deficiency of the legal system of real estate tax revenue, perfect the legal system of property tax, exploit the source of public finance revenue, regulate income distribution and real estate market.The second part focuses on the current situation and existing problems of China’s real estate tax law system. Beginning with the legislative status quo of our current legal system of real estate tax, this part points out the problems of the legal system from the perspective of legislative level, scope of taxation, tax basis and tax rates, and also analyses and evaluates the content and effect of the pilot cities’real estate tax reform.The third part introduces the real estate tax law system of the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan for further comparison and reference of the legal system in these typical countries and regions. These countries and regions generally adhere to the wider tax base, less tax categories principle, and establish a regime of prioritizing possession against transfer. Besides they also attach importance to decentralizing the jurisdiction in real estate tax revenue to local authorities, and have better real estate assessment system. The useful experience those typical countries and regions have gained in the process of improve and perfect their housing property tax system is worth our reference.The fourth part offers specific recommendations to improve the legal system of China’s real estate tax. It first starts with the legislative model and discusses the choice of legislative model under the current real estate tax reform background and after overall implementation of real estate tax reform. Then it analyses the specific designation of real estate tax law system from the perspective of tax law elements.