Property Tax System Reform

Property tax system acts as a powerful tool by the government to levy the real state market performance and an important role in the country's tax system. In recent years, as the result of robust economic growth and real state market development, citizens'private wealth, especially private property, has become more and more significant. However, the consequent pressures of raising property price and revealed defects of property tax system calls for the adoption of housing tax to control house property price. Taxation on private property has been the hot topic of national finance and taxation reform since 2003, but little outcome is achieved. In China's 2010 Report on Deepen Economic System Reform Key Issues, the phase of "gradually push forward the property tax reform" replaced "housing tax", which means China is not well prepared for introducing overall property tax system. At present, the best solution is by seizing the opportunity of freehold property tax reform, to expand the range of property tax and move forward the property tax system reform.With an evaluation of the principles and experiences of British Council Tax, on the basis of analyzing property tax system in China, this thesis argues that the system design of British Council Tax can shed some light on the feasibility of China's property tax system reform and puts forward some policy suggestions on moving forward property tax system reform under the inspiration of success and lessons from implementation of Council Tax. The thesis consists of four parts.Chapter 1 mainly discusses the background and purpose of the thesis, provides theory basis of property tax, and proposes that "Property Tax" and "Property Tax System" of this study is the system in relation to the real state, with comparison of property tax in China and abroad.Chapter 2, tracing the history of British Council Tax, demonstrates the fundamental reasons of introducing British Council Tax to China, and by analyzing its design features, argues for Council Tax's effectiveness and success.Chapter 3, through an insight into China's current property tax system, analyzes the defects of this tax system, highlights the inherent systematic defect that freehold property tax system is not yet really constructed, which should be the focus of China's property tax system reform for the current stage.Chapter 4 demonstrates the feasibility of adapting British Council Tax for China, and its significances of guiding China's property tax system reform. The breakthrough point for current property tax system reform is to expand the range of property tax and to improve freehold property tax system.