Tax collection and management land transfer gold real estate market or usher in the “top-level design” level of supervision
Our reporter Li Ruina reports from Shenglan in Shanghai
On June 4, the Ministry of Finance and other four departments issued the “Regarding the transfer of the four government non-tax revenues from the transfer of state-owned land use rights, special income from mineral resources, sea area use gold, and non-resident island use gold to the taxation department for collection of related issues The Notice (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”) shocked the entire real estate industry.
A number of industry experts explained to a reporter from China Business News that the most direct impact of the transfer of taxation departments to the “vertical line” of revenue from state-owned land use rights is to enable the central government to better understand the specific situation of local land transfer revenues and expenditures. .
In the long run, this will have a profound impact on the relationship between the central government and local governments and the behavior of local governments. The regulation of the real estate market will be reformed from the “top-level design” level. However, in the short term, industry insiders told our reporter that this is not directly related to housing prices and real estate taxes.
Stricter review of payment by real estate companies
The “Notice” pointed out that the four government non-tax revenues collected by the natural resources department from the transfer of state-owned land use rights, special income from mineral resources, sea area use funds, and non-resident island use funds will all be transferred to the taxation department for collection. At the same time, the policy is clear, and the policy of “testing first and then rolling out” will be implemented, that is, some provinces and cities will take the lead in conducting pilot projects, and then comprehensive reforms will be carried out next year, 2022.
Specifically, starting from the second half of this year, seven provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and cities under separate state planning), namely Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Qingdao, and Yunnan, will carry out pilot transfers of collection and management responsibilities. The contents of the pilot program include improving the collection process, division of responsibilities, etc., to accumulate experience for the comprehensive implementation of the transfer work.
“This time the taxation department has the right to collect land transfer fees, and its significance will not simply be limited to the business level of taxation.” Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of E-House Research Institute, said that the land transfer fees themselves reflect In response to the signals of the land market and the housing market, subsequent real estate companies also need to deal with the tax authorities in the payment of the land transfer price.
It is understood that in the process of housing system reforms in various places, many land use rules and transaction rules have been formed. For example, there are regulations for “competitive self-sustained projects”, “combined construction of policy-based rental housing”, and “talented housing” in the dual central supply underground. It will affect the specific payment of land transfer fees. In the process of payment, due to the complexity of the land market and the opaque collection of land transfer fees in various regions, real estate companies delay payment in order to ease the pressure on funds, and local governments may reduce or exempt the amount in order to attract investment.
In the land transaction market, there is a link of fund review. From the perspective of industry insiders, if the taxation department collects the land transfer fee, it can cooperate with the natural resources and financial departments to actively make efforts in the examination of land purchase funds, and truly promote the healthy development of the land purchase fund market.
“Taxation is collected by the taxation department, and the strictness and standardization of the collection will be significantly improved; the influence and control of the local government in the land transfer link will be reduced, and even more cautious; the real estate developer will reduce the financial pressure and the coordination of financial costs Space may be compressed.” Yang Chang, chief expert of the Public Policy and Governance Institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and chief analyst of the Zhongtai Securities Research Institute, pointed out that this also reflects the central government’s signal to push local governments to get rid of relying on “land finance” and continue the central government. A strong signal to regulate the property market.
In this regard, the president of a real estate group in Hunan Province confirmed that for the developer, the land transfer fee that should be paid has not changed, but there are some variables in the adjustment of the expropriation department. According to the past, when paying land transfer fees to local governments, if small real estate companies are unable to make money, there is room for delay to be negotiated. For example, when signing up for land, 20% will be paid, and the remaining land will be paid within one year. Paid off. The collection of taxation departments is based on the principle of collecting all receivables. “If the huge land payment is paid in one lump sum, it will undoubtedly increase the pressure for some real estate companies.
Increased efforts in land market risk management
If the change in the expropriation of the land transfer fee is extended to the land market, the phenomenon of “land kings” in the land market may be improved from the “lower leverage” in the link of obtaining land from real estate enterprises.
From the perspective of traditional land market supervision, local land administration departments are both impulsive and pressured. The impulse is that the demand for land finance makes it hope that the income from land sales will be higher during the process of land supply. The pressure lies in the overheating of prefectures and cities, and it is easy to face the pressure of regulation and responsibility. This makes the regulation of some urban land “very tangled”, and in turn makes the evaluation of the popularity of the land market not completely accurate.
“At present, when such work is transferred to the taxation department, its understanding of the land transaction market will be better and more objective, and it will also be able to judge the degree of coldness and the risk of the land market based on this.” Yan Yuejin said, from the top. From a status perspective, the tax department has the most basic land transaction and capital data in the real estate market. At the same time, since the establishment of the new tax department, although the organization has been streamlined, it has strengthened its strengths in taxation services, taxation big data and risk management, taxation economic analysis, and cross-regional inspections. It has a positive impact on the macro-control of real estate. .
Public information shows that tax authorities across the country are now gradually equipped with working mechanisms such as cross-district and county inspections, inter-provincial risk reminders, intelligence pushes, and risk investigations. Later, as land transfer fees are collected by tax authorities, relevant content may also be included in this category. Working mechanism.
Yan Yuejin bluntly said that in the past, local land regulatory authorities only knew about the land acquisition of local real estate companies, but they did not know much about their land acquisition in other cities across the country. “Subsequent taxation departments can use big tax data to comprehensively analyze the payment of land transfer fees and land value-added tax payment of real estate companies across the country to analyze the operation and risk conditions of real estate companies. Part of the data can completely form a macro view. Recommendations for policy regulation.”
It is worth mentioning that while the tax collection of land transfer fees has landed, discussions on real estate taxes have also become abruptly fierce.
Chen Wenjing, deputy research director of the Index Division of the China Index Research Institute, said that after the revenue from the transfer of state-owned land use rights is collected by the taxation department, the central government’s supervision of the scope of capital use has been further strengthened, which will promote local governments to get rid of their dependence on land finance to a certain extent. In the future, measures to improve the local tax and direct tax system and appropriately increase the proportion of direct tax will continue to be implemented. Real estate tax, as a type of direct tax, is expected to have new progress in related work. The next key city real estate tax pilot projects are expected to increase.
However, Shi Wenwen, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, believes that the collection of real estate tax requires the tax department to obtain household-related information, which can be obtained through the national network of real estate registration information. The land transfer fee is taxed and cannot be obtained for real estate tax related information. “Therefore, there is no connection between tax collection and management of land transfer fees and real estate tax collection.”
(Editor: Shijing Jing, proofread: Yan Jingning)
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