Tag Archives: Property

Property Taxation in the People’s Republic of China

Description

The property taxation system in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is still developing and does not include important features that would make it efficient. For instance, residential property is excluded from the tax base. This has contributed to real estate speculation, income disparity, and revenue losses.

A well-functioning local property tax system in the PRC would provide an efficient, equitable and sustainable way to finance local development and government spending. By helping to align expenditure responsibilities with revenue allocations at the local level, property taxation could reduce inequality in the provision of public goods and foster local government ability to provide them. Further, it will reduce the incentive for speculative behavior mitigating housing bubbles.

To further develop property taxation in the PRC it is recommended to gradually strengthen and expand the existing pilots, supported by clear principles on the delegation of taxation responsibilities, the definition of a nationally standardized tax base, an affordable tax rate, and enhanced local government capacity.

This policy note aims at drawing policy recommendations for future developments in property taxation in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by reviewing best international practices and specific challenges in the PRC.

Miguel Elosua

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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Dreaming in Chinese: accountable development

Barbara L. Bezdek (2012). Dreaming in Chinese: accountable development. Maryland journal of international law 27, 48-81.

Economic life in the PRC today is marked by rapid privatization, marketization, and urbanization. This triad of forces effects a profound restructuring of China’s urban spaces and is giving rise to new forms of private, voluntary associations of citizens such as neighborhood campaigns of resistance to urban redevelopment. Civil society theory ascribes to such organizations outside of state control, the potential to constrain government officials by enabling citizens to express their collective interests more effectively, and to resist government encroachment more powerfully than they otherwise could. Because resort to China’s courts has produced little protection for citizens’ formal legal rights in the event of forced demolition, relocation, and compensation, urban homeowners have resorted to extra-legal modes of resistance including protests, petitions, and confrontations – some of them deadly. This article assesses the potential to construct an ‘accountable development’ frame as a set of strategies to channel resentment and resistance into bargained-for development agreements – situations between the market and the state, neither anti-regimist nor stymied by the ‘turn from law.’

 

Monique Abud

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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