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Property Tax in Urban China
Author(s) -
Li Dan,
Song Shunfeng
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
china and world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.815
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1749-124X
pISSN - 1671-2234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-124x.2008.00121.x
Subject(s) - china , property tax , speculation , database transaction , transaction cost , business , tax reform , possession (linguistics) , economics , revenue , tax revenue , public economics , finance , linguistics , philosophy , political science , computer science , law , programming language
This paper examines China's urban housing sector and proposes that property tax reform be undertaken. Specifically, China should significantly reduce taxes on transactions and introduce property taxes during the possession of houses. This will increase housing affordability as a result of lower transaction costs, reduce speculation because of the higher opportunity cost of holding vacant houses, stabilize the fiscal system by generating more sustainable tax revenue, and improve the efficiency and fairness of the property tax system according to the principles of “ability‐to‐pay” and “user pays”.