The Impact Of Property Tax Upon The Gap Between Rich And Poor

China's economy has achieved a leap-forward development from the weakness to strong during the 40 years of reform and opening.However,with the rapid development of economy,the widening income gap has become a social problem that can't be ignored in China and "fairness and efficiency" has turned into one of the main themes of China's economic development.Therefore,adjusting the gap in wealth through taxation to realize "fairness and justice" is widely applied in the world.In recent years,the reform of property tax has become a focus of the whole society and whether it can narrow income gap is also a hot topic among the public.To explore whether the reform of property tax can harmonize income inequality,this paper takes the pilot reform of property tax in Shanghai and Chongqing in 2011 as the research object to analyze the impact of property tax reform on income inequality.Firstly,we analyze the theoretical mechanism of property tax affecting income inequality.Secondly,we discuss the differences of the policy in property tax reform between Shanghai and Chongqing.Then,through an econometric model,we study the impact of different property tax reform policies on income inequality in Shanghai and Chongqing.Finally,we summarize the research results and point out some shortcomings.In our study,the panel data of 24 cities including Shanghai and Chongqing from 2006 to 2015 are selected as samples,the property tax reform is regarded as a natural experiment and the difference-in-differences is used to study the impact of different property tax reform policies on income inequality.Empirical analysis shows that Shanghai's reform mode will widen income inequality,while the pattern of the Chongqing will narrow income inequality.The main reason is that there are obvious differences in object selection and design of tax rate between two cities.According to the results,we put forward some corresponding suggestions for the further property tax reform.