Study On Legal Issues Of Individual Housing Property Tax In China

With the ever-bettering of China’s economic and social performance these years, real estate market has been experiencing rapid development. However, there rise some undesirable problems such as bigger gap between the rich and the poor, the too speedy increase of house price, and the irrational distribution of housing resources. As to house property tax, the existing<Provisional Regulations of the People’s Republic of China On Real Estate Tax> has now been somehow not suitable for current real estate market development. Provisional Measures of Shanghai Municipality to Levy Property Tax on Individual Living Houses> and<Provisional Measures of Chongqing Municipal Government to Levy Property Tax on Individual Living Houses>, both issued in 2011, attempted to levy living house property tax firstly in China. This is one step of China’s real estate tax reform which also beckons a serious of disputes and thoughts on individual housing property tax.In this article, the comparison of definition between individual housing property tax and other similar taxes is made to demarcate the former, and to define the sphere of its study. Discussed hereafter are hot theoretical issues such as disputes on the target of individual housing property tax, whether this tax can be levied under public-ownership land system, whether conflicts exist between this tax and land-transferring fee, and whether this tax will easily be utilized improperly. Based on this discussion is the conclusion that levying this tax is legally right in China.In view of China’s current economic and political, legal and opinion situation, and via comparison and analysis of provisional measures acted between Shanghai and Chongqing, some experience and lessons are learnt which are sure to help form a better individual housing property tax system. In this article, some suggestions are also put forward for this tax system. Given the fact that there are some defects in tax regulations and owing to some sound foreign real estate property tax where a series of aspects such as object, taxing standard and ratio, tax deduction and exemption, taxing regulation and supporting system are clearly defined, some concrete thoughts are also put forward in this article.